Interactive Modeling for Multiobjective Scheduling and Routing of Radioactive Waste Shipments

Routing and scheduling decisions for radioactive waste shipments are important because these decisions alter the probability of accidents involving the shipments as well as the size of the population potentially exposed to the consequences of any accidental release. The costs of transportation are also closely related to the routes and schedules chosen, and thus decisions must be made in recognition of multiple objectives (e.g. minimizing risk and minimizing cost) which may be competing. When multiple criteria are applied, there is usually no single ''best\" route or schedule for a given shipment. One alternative may minimize population exposed to risk, for example, while a second minimizes the probability of an accident, and a third minimizes cost. In this situation, our attention should be focused on identifying a set of \"non-dominated\" route/schedule alternatives. The actual alternative chosen should be from this set, but within this set a choice must be made by explicitly trading off one objective for another.