Issues in Evaluating Standards

When the consequences of a decision affect the public, for example, in nuclear power plant design and construction, standards are set to promote decision making in the public interest. The interrelationship of standards, their possible impacts, and the public's values is examined, by focusing on technological tradeoffs between feasible standards and diverse values of members of the public.

When these issues are not explicitly addressed, the resulting standards often do not promote the optimum alternative of the public.