Page 66 - Beyond Decommissioning

The fundamentals of industrial redevelopment 47

Fig. 2.11 Warning of residual contamination.
Credit to the US Department of Energy.

(e.g., the gradual loss of resolution of electronic files). However, a slow deterioration
of knowledge may go unnoticed and eventually be destructive. It should be noted that
the institutional controls applied to a site use tends to deteriorate: for example, the
warning given in Fig. 2.11 can hardly be expected to work for many decades, if
not supported by other measures. Factors causing loss of knowledge can be catego-
rized as in Table 2.2.
The safe management of a redeveloped facility/site is an activity that has the poten-
tial to create significant amounts of information—much of which is likely to be relevant
for a long period of time. The objectives of information transfer are many. The objec-
tives may also change over the passage of time as a result of the need to meet different
needs, but typically include:
l explaining the intent of redevelopment and the values to preserve;
detailed description of facilities and sites;
l
demonstrating safe and effective maintenance practices;
l
providing evidence of regulatory compliance; and
l
alerting successive generations of the hazards concerning contaminated sites.
l
The transfer of information should be viewed not so much as the physical transfer of
information but the action of making information available in a form that can be suc-
cessfully accessed and understood by future users. Transfer of information implies
that the information package can be defined in advance to meet expected needs.
However, the information necessary to perform a revised or retrospective review