Current Projects
Projects
The following details a number of the current projects that lab members are focused on. Please contact the lead lab member for more information.
Community Media and Local Infrastructure
The Community Media and Local Infrastructure Project is funded by the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation and the Department of Energy. This initiative focuses on examining the mechanisms by which local community media and local infrastructure interconnect with one another. A core question for this research is to better understand how and why information received via community media connects with and impacts community resources. Examples include prior instances where misinformation disseminated online triggered physical offline reactions (such as a buying spree of bottled water based on a rumored leak from a nearby chemical plant).
Project Lead: Matthew Weber
Project ASPEN
Project ASPEN is a collaboration between a team of researchers from Rutgers University and the National Alliance on Mental Illness of New Jersey (NAMI NJ) that is funded by a grant from the William T. Grant Foundation (Active Surveillance of Policy Ecosystems and Networks [ASPEN] to Enhance Brokering of Research Evidence into State Policymaking). The big idea behind Project ASPEN is that building a robust infrastructure for producing and disseminating research that is relevant to the implantation of evidence-based guidelines will increase the likelihood that such guidelines are adopted and implemented by policymakers.
Project Lead: Matthew Weber
Papers and Presentations
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Krahn, S., Weber, M. S., Harkema, M., Acosta, R. M., Greenberg, M., Mayer, H., Kosson, D. (2026). Developing a process for collaboration-based siting of a Consolidated Interim Storage Facility (CISF) in the United States: Learning from communities living with legacy waste. Nuclear Technology, https://doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2025.2561198
Peer Reviewed Conceference Proceedings
Acosta, R. M., Lee, M., Weber, M.S., Krahn, S., & Harkema, M. (2026, March). Stakeholder engagement in nuclear waste cleanup at existing nuclear sites. Waste Management Symposia 2026, Phoenix, AZ. https://s3.amazonaws.com/amz.xcdsystem.com/A464D2CF-E476-F46B-841E415B85C431CC_abstract_File929/PDFFinalPaper_26408_0301062414.pdf
Weber, M.S., Shen, M., Acosta, R. M., Krahn, S., & Harkema, M. (2026, March). Leveraging AI to analyze social media and local news to understand community perspective on radioactive waste management. Waste Management Symposia 2026, Phoenix, AZ. https://s3.amazonaws.com/amz.xcdsystem.com/A464D2CF-E476-F46B-841E415B85C431CC_abstract_File929/PDFFinalPaper_26435_0301121223.pdf
Weber, M. S., Acosta, R. M., Harkema, M., & Krahn, S. (2025, March). Data-driven assessment of community data & social media to inform consent-based siting of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) storage. Waste Management Symposia 2025, Phoenix, AZ.
Weber, M. S., Acosta, R. M., Harkema, M., & Krahn, S. (2024, November). Community comments and social media interactions as a basis for informing consent-based siting of spent nuclear fuel facilities. 2024 American Nuclear Society Winter Conference and Expo, Orlando, FL. https://www.ans.org/pubs/transactions/article-56973/
Conference Presentations
Acosta, R. M., Lee, C., & Weber, M.S. (2026, November). Organizing risk in stakeholder communities. National Communication Association Annual Conference 2026, New Orleans, LA.
Acosta, R. M., & Weber, M. S. (2025, November). Complex systems, grand challenges, and variations in communicative perceptions of key stakeholders. National Communication Association Annual Conference, Denver, CO.
Developing a process for consent-based siting of a consolidated interim storage Facility (CISF) in the United States: Mutual, sociotechnical learning from communities surrounding DOE-EM sites. University of Michigan’s Symposium: An International Symposium on Sociotechnical Research on Nuclear Technology, Ann Arbor, MI.