ABSTRACT
Locally unwanted land uses such as hazardous and radioactive waste sites are regarded with as much fear and loathing as all of Hunter Thompson's gonzo books put together. The universality of Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) is evident in a poll such as that described by the Battelle Human Affairs Research Center, a think-tank in Washington State. The psychology of risks is reflected by the many people who go out of their way to avoid them. Those who want to site wastes would like to have fewer like Elizabeth Gray and more of the second category. In each of someone, there is a unique mixture of risk aversion and risk tolerance. Loss of control is precisely what communities often feel when an unwanted facility is proposed. As Charles Wolf writes, On the local level, implementation of national policy comes down to a question of alternative sites, not whether a facility is wanted at all.
