PNNL

Our Decision Science and Analysis capability conducts research and development, offering solutions to some of the nation’s most complex energy and security challenges. We assemble diverse teams to address complex problems where science, technology, policy, and society intersect.

Our teams concentrate on decision science, risk analysis, economics, systems engineering, decision support systems, policy analysis, social and behavioral sciences, statistics, and safety analysis. These concentrations enable development and application of decision and risk analysis, safety and risk assessment, decision making under uncertainty, alternatives analysis, strategic process and systems improvements, and decision support under resource constraints.

Other modeling and analysis capabilities include socioeconomic modeling, market and policy analysis, techno-economic modeling and analysis, regional and national energy simulation, and cost-benefit analysis and uncertainty analytics. Our decision and risk analysis expertise develops science-based strategies for minimizing risks to individuals or the public, program life cycles, facility designs and operations, and the environment locally and globally.

We have teams that collaborate with external partners and make significant advances in the areas of patient safety, policy analysis, and safety and risk assessments of engineered systems. Our teams are recognized for their expertise in areas such as nuclear and alternative energy operational safety review and risk assessment; technology field testing, evaluation and performance assessment; programmatic risk assessment. Other specialties include geo-spatial decision analytics; nuclear proliferation risk modeling; distributed decision-making for power grid reliability; regulatory development; equipment codes and standards; and tax structures for energy technology deployment. We are also leaders in safety assessment; probabilistic risk assessment methodology development and application; environmental impact assessment; and analyses and feasibility assessments for nuclear, geothermal, hydropower, and other sustainable energy technologies.

Our U.S. Department of Energy sponsors are the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the Office of Electricity, the Office of Nuclear Energy, and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Other federal sponsors include the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, Bonneville Power Administration, and Nuclear Regulatory Commission.