Ben Plummer
Project Performance Corporation

Using the Internet to find relevant radioactive waste information is an arduous task, due mainly to the fact that simple search strings, such as "low-level waste," will return up to 7,000 individual "hits" from thousands of different web sites. Finding relevant radioactive waste information is complicated by many factors, including irrelevant information, superficial substance, and lack of data and sources. Users are often forced to improve their own searches using long text strings that require a series of quotation marks, plus-signs, and/or indicator words such as "like" or "not." If a tool could be created to help users find relevant radioactive waste information in a timely manner, these tedious searches could be reduced or eliminated. One helpful tool that could be developed is a radioactive waste virtual institute. Virtual institutes are search and link networks of web sites and data repositories that contain comprehensive information on all aspects of a singular subject (e.g., general information, regulations, news articles, mailing lists, papers from subject experts, chat rooms, courses, lists of experts, etc.). A virtual institute is an information organizer and search engine that allows the user to immediately access relevant information about different aspects of a certain subject. A virtual institute provides the structure and framework to organize these sites, allowing for better information dissemination by using "top-down," rather than "bottom-up," searches on a much more focused and structured universe of information. This study identifies these web sites that contain different types of nuclear waste management information, defines the existing universe of information, categorizes the these web sites, provides options for improving searches, and establishes criteria for an effective centralized on-line nuclear waste information repository (i.e., virtual institute).

Over the past ten years, private companies, public agencies, and non-profit groups have allocated vast resources and funded groundbreaking research on environmental issues. Consequently, these organizations have utilized the Internet as an information dissemination tool to inform the public about radioactive waste issues. Currently, thousands of public and private organizations have placed radioactive waste information on the Internet. However, finding relevant radioactive waste information is difficult because thousands web sites contain disparate information on low-level waste, high-level waste, transuranic waste, and spent nuclear fuel.

Simple search strings (e.g., high-level waste) return thousands of individual "hits" from web sites using four popular browsers (i.e., AltaVista, Excite, Infoseek, and Yahoo). Currently, these "hits" are presented to web users either ranked by relevance or randomly in a list of 20 to 40 web site titles per page for up to 1,000 pages. Such an exhaustive list is almost impossible to explore fully, and most users are forced to select links based on titles rather than content, refine their search, or seek other sources. Even after refining their searches, some users cannot find the information they seek because it either has not yet been posted to the Internet or the search string that they are using is not linking to the correct web sites. In most cases, the typical user is unable to use the Internet as an information source for technical information. Although several sites are available that serve as a warehouse for links to other relevant sites, none of these sites provided a broad coverage of radioactive waste management information. For example, the Department of Energy's Departmental Resources (http://www.doe.gov/html/doe/infolink/infolink.html) web site contains six categories of hyperlinks that permit the users to access hundreds different web sites. Because of the sheer number of links, the user is forced to search these links in order to discover which web site will contain relevant information. The categories are as follows:

• Access Headquarters or Program Office Home Pages;
• Access Operations Offices Home Pages;
• Access Laboratories and Other Field Facilities Home Pages;
• Access Other Information Resources;
• Access Home Pages via a U.S. map of Department sites; and
• Word Search the DOE Home Page.

There are four purposes to this paper:

• Summarize the content over 30,000 radioactive waste links on the Internet;
• Apply a classification technique to the volumes of available waste information by placing those links into different categories;
• Identify several alternatives to aid the search for this information; and
• Provide the framework for a radioactive waste information virtual institute.

Many categories of radioactive waste information exist on the Internet. This paper classifies those sources and provides a framework for establishing a radioactive waste virtual institute. Virtual institutes are collections of web pages linking to data repositories that contain comprehensive information on all aspects of a singular subject (e.g., general information, regulations, news articles, mailing lists, papers from subject experts, chat rooms, courses, lists of experts, etc.).

Data collection was based on how different computer users would search the Internet for radioactive waste management information, i.e., inputting a series of common search strings into various different web search engines. Because the amount and extent of radioactive waste information on the Internet changes daily, data for each search string in a browser was collected in one sitting. For example, all 1,000 "hits" for "low level waste" in AltaVista were examined over a ten-hour period based on one search string.

The data was collected during a two-week period from September 8-22, 1997, using four of the most common web browsers (AltaVista, Excite, Infoseek, and Yahoo). The data was based on searches using exact search strings that were inputted into each of the browsers (i.e., "high level waste," "low level waste," "transuranic waste," and "spent nuclear fuel"). All searches were filtered to return web sites that were written in English. Once a search string had been inputted into a browser, the total number of "hits" was recorded and each "hit" was characterized. Once characterized, the "hits" were added together, and the results are presented in Table I: Radioactive Waste Information Categories.

The categories of information are modeled after the frameworks of existing virtual institutes. Individual links were categorized based on the type of web site that returned a "hit." For the purposes of this report, all of these categories are mutually exclusive. For example, a newspaper article describing new treatment technologies was placed in the "Reports/Articles" category rather than the "Technology/Treatment" category. The reason for its placement in the "Reports/Articles" category rather than the "Technology/Treatment" category is because the "hit" came from a newspaper web site, and not a technology- or treatment-based web site.

Data are presented in Table II.

This analysis illustrates that approximately 28 percent of the "hits" concerning radioactive waste on the Internet are part of the "Reports/Articles" category. The reason why articles and reports represent the largest number of "hits" in this study is twofold. First, the category itself has a wide scope. The term "Report" does not mean that the "hit" is the result of a large, costly multi-year study or long newspaper article, but rather the term includes newspaper articles, small newsletters, monthly reports that site personnel are required to produce, status reports, and conference proceedings. In addition, this category contains many "hits" because of the amount of public attention that radioactive waste issues have generated over the last ten years. Because many people are concerned about contamination, radioactive waste has become an important issue for Federal, state, and local governments. In response to those concerns, the Federal, state, and local governments, community action boards, government watchdogs, environmental groups, and other interested parties have generated thousands of reports concerning different aspects radioactive waste. In order to reach a wider audience, these groups place their reports and articles on the Internet.

The "Guidance/Regulations," category represents another 17 percent of the total radioactive waste "hits." Regulations were combined with the "Guidance" category because of the small number of "hits" that the regulations received. Although many web sites contained links to Federal and state regulations, and DOE, NRC, and EPA orders, there are relatively few web sites that contain the regulations or orders themselves. One interesting finding is that interpretation of the regulations (e.g., guidance documents), were "hit" approximately twenty times more often that the regulations themselves (e.g., the Code of Federal Regulations).

In addition, the "Radioactive Waste Programs," "Treatment Technology," "General Information," and "Federal Sites" categories represent 15, 13, 12, and 9 percent of the total radioactive waste "hits." These documents were created to ensure the health and safety of its workers and inform the general public of radioactive waste management issues. Links to these documents inform the public as to how the different responsible agencies are dealing with radioactive waste, and cover a wide range of subjects such as handling, storage, treatment, risk, history, chemical and physical analysis, and protective measures. Due to the complex and inherently dangerous nature of these materials, numerous documents discuss the handling of radioactive waste in a safe and effective manner.

There are many limitations to the data: duplicative "hits," superficial substance, irrelevant information, outdated information. Each of these limitations complicates the search for finding relevant radioactive waste information on the Internet.

Duplicative "hits" occur when a search string returns a list of links that contain multiple listings for the same page or multiple pages from the same web site. Duplicative "hits" occur every time that any user searches with an Internet browser and are one of the main reasons why browsers return so many "hits" for each search string (up to 100,000 "hits" can be listed at once by AltaVista). For example, if a web site defines low-level waste on one of its pages, the search engine may return as many as 20 separate listed links to that one page from the 1,000 "hits" it lists as possible sources. In other words, even though 7,000 "hits" are listed for low-level waste in the table above, there are not 7,000 different web sites that contain low-level waste information. Because browsers cannot eliminate double counting, duplicative "hits" were included as part of the analysis.

Another limitation to the data is that most "hits" documented above were from web site pages that contained superficial information. Few web sites contained radioactive waste contained numerical data, and most other web sites that mention the above text strings had incomplete references or references to hard copy materials that are difficult to obtain. In other cases, references were absent, or the subject was discussed at such a high level that users were forced to look elsewhere for in-depth discussion of a specific radioactive waste topic. For example, multiple guidance documents had been published to the Internet that contained only the overview of the guidance and the table of contents of each module. If a user searched for information contained in one of those modules, that user would have to buy a hard copy of it, rather than downloading the specific module.

Irrelevant information is also a data limitation. Some browsers are designed to search the text of web site pages, not just their titles. Consequently, any mention of the above strings resulted in a "hit." For example, one "hit" for "low level waste" was from a newspaper article that listed different types of landfills that a small Minnesota community was considering to establish next to its town. In this article, the words "low level waste" appeared once. However, because the browser searched the text as well as the title, it returned a "hit." No information about low-level waste appeared in the article.

All browsers provide users with outdated information on every search, mainly because few web sites are well maintained and frequently updated. The majority of the "hits" illustrated above were found on pages that were over two years old. Some web site pages containing radioactive waste information had not been updated since 1992. For example, several guidance documents and hundreds of reports had previous versions still posted on the Internet. Without searching each "hit," few users would be able to distinguish which information was timely or whether or not they were viewing the most recent version of a guidance document.

Fortunately, users have many options that will improve their web searching. These options range from manual refinement to advanced search engines to metasites and virtual institutes.

Manually improving one's search is the most common option taken by users when they are seeking more detailed information. Adding more words to the search string can narrow one's results, but search strings vary between browsers, forcing the user to know which type of text string will bring successful results. Because search strings vary, users can accidentally exclude important information because of their lack of familiarity with the different browsers. For example, if one wanted to search Yahoo and Lycos for information on low level waste treatment technologies, the search string for each browser would be different (Yahoo: "low level waste" and "treatment" and "technology"; Lycos: "low level waste"+"treatment"+"technology").

Most web browsers now contain advanced search engines that will automatically help refine searches. These browsers provide the user with subject or category headings based on the original text string. However, these refined searches still consistently produce over 1,000 "hits" per search string. For example, for "low level waste," Lycos provides the user with over 1,200 "hits" as well as a list of hyperlinks to related topics that include web site reviews, pictures, personal home pages, books on that subject, yellow pages, and a search for news on "low level waste."

Metasites are web sites that contain between five and one hundred hypertext links to other web sites. While this could be a good resource, users cannot know what information the other web sites contain, and therefore must visit every one in an attempt to find relevant information. Often, metasite hypertext links do not contain sufficient links to cover the all of the different aspects of one subject. For example, a metasite on music may have links to rock, classical, jazz, and blues web sites. While this list covers a great deal of types of music, it lacks many aspects of the entire subject of music, such as learning how to play a guitar or reading sheet music.

A virtual institute is a search and link network of information and data that provides timely and relevant information to the user through powerful search engines that gather information from the web, users across the world, and its own databases. Virtual institutes are subject-matter specific, which allows for more comprehensive and detailed information to be placed on the Internet. For example, a virtual institute dedicated to radioactive waste would contain general radioactive waste information, a search engine dedicated to finding radioactive waste information across the World Wide Web, radioactive waste regulations, news articles, mailing lists, papers from subject experts, feedback forums, educational courses, lists of experts, and a vast list of hyperlinks to all aspects of radioactive waste across the Internet.

Virtual institutes are a network of web sites and data repositories that contain comprehensive information on all aspects of a singular subject. For each virtual institute, there is one subject matter, narrowing the field of searchable information. Virtual institutes have search and link network capabilities that contain timely and searchable databases that access relevant information across to Internet. Successful virtual institutes contain many of the following key elements:

• Search engines that search the relevant sites on the Internet;
• Databases of relevant and timely information;
• Forums for feedback;
• Subject discussion groups;
• Recently published articles;
• An area to submit papers;
• Bulletin boards of job listings;
• Libraries of hyperlinks;
• Mailing lists;
• Biography databases;
• Lists of subject experts along with means to contact them;
• A calendar of upcoming events;
• Member lists;
• Newsletters; and
• Courses for further education.

Virtual institutes couple organized information with powerful "top-down" search engines that allow the user to immediately access relevant information about a certain subject by quickly eliminating extraneous information. A "top-down" search engine takes a wide field of information and narrows the field of information as the user follows links that break the original subject into subheadings. Most "top-down" search engines break information out into subheadings that cover approximately twenty percent of the information (i.e., each time a user clicks on a button, five subheadings are displayed that the user can choose). Therefore, after two clicks of a mouse, the user has narrowed down the search to four percent of the original universe of information. After three clicks on the mouse, the search is narrowed to approximately one percent of the original information.

Several virtual institutes already exist on the Internet. The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) created an award-winning telecommunications virtual institute in 1996 (http://www.vii.org - The Virtual Institute of Information). One of the first virtual institutes, the designers encompassed all aspects of information concerning telecommunication technology. Job listings, discussion groups, a telecommunications news bulletin board, research papers, regulations, and other related subjects are all a part of the virtual institute. Because of its diverse subject matter, its interactivity with the user, and the ability of the user to narrow searches to find information immediately, it is used as a professional resource rather than just a search engine.

A relatively new virtual institute is named the "Scibermed Virtual Institute - The National Healthcare Roadmap" (http://www.scibermed.com/). This virtual institute is dedicated to improving health care through technology, and contains members from across the world. The Scibermed web site is by far one of the most well designed virtual institutes on the Internet, combinnig ease of use with aesthetically pleasing pages.

Possibly the most impressive virtual institute is the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APSCO) International, Inc. virtual institute (http://apcointl.org/). The APSCO site was established by the world's oldest and largest not-for-profit professional organization dedicated to the enhancement of public safety communications. The APSCO site's most appealing features are its ease of navigation and unparalleled volume of information that the user can access. From the home page of the APSCO virtual institute, there are approximately twenty different subject areas that the user can immediately link to in order to find relevant information.

A major flaw with browsers is that they link to too much subject matter for the engines to present in an effective manner. Because of this, browsers often return hundreds or even thousands of links about one subject with no regard to classifying the returned links. Virtual institutes do not try to link up the entire World Wide Web, but rather link all information about one aspect of it together in a coherent manner.

Virtual institutes move from general to specific information by making the user choose specific subheadings that lead the user to the desired information. This stepwise process eliminates large amounts of information at one time and allows users to focus on the absorbing and applying relevant information, rather than the search for it. Virtual institutes have distinct advantages over common web browsers: a much more focused scope and "top-down" rather than "bottom-up" search capability. These advantages make the virtual institute a more effective information dissemination tool for any subject, especially radioactive waste.

The time has come for a group of organizations to collaborate to build a radioactive waste virtual institute. The Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Defense, non-profit organizations, large industrial companies, and other public and private organizations in the United States and across the world need to create this valuable and necessary information dissemination tool. A radioactive waste management virtual institute would be and invaluable resource for researchers, students, individuals that work with radioactive waste, managers, and the public in general, for it would successfully disseminate radioactive waste management information in a comprehensive and lucid manner while eliminating the tedium of conducting web searches.

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