Site selection and assessment for a nuclear storage facility

We investigate the structure and accuracy of the decision making process in finding an optimal location for stored nuclear materials for 25-50 years. Using a well-documented facility design, benefit hierarchy is set up for different sites to rank a given site for different options. Criteria involve safeguards standards, technical viability, environmental effects, economics, political impact, and public acceptance. Problem faced here is multi-criterion decision making. Two approaches are investigated: analytic hierarchy process (AHP) of Saaty, and fuzzy logic approach of Yager. Whereas AHP requires a pairwise comparison of criteria and pairwise comparison of alternatives, in Yager`s approach each alternative is considered independently, allowing one to extend the analysis without performing time-consuming computation