"....an interactive process of exchange of information and opinion among individuals, groups and institutions".We construe risk communication to be successful to the extent that it raises the level of understanding of relevant issues or actions for those involved and satisfies them that they are adequately informed within the limits of available knowledge. (NRC 1989, 2). The NRC (1989, 149) concludes that four objectives are key to improving risk communications: (1) goal setting, (2) openness, (3) balance, and (4) competence. As a means of achieving these objectives, it is important, at the start of any given project, to determine: (1) what the public know, believe, and do not believe about the subject risk and ways to control it; (2) what quantitative and qualitative information participants need to know to make critical decisions; (3) and how they think about and conceptualize the risk. (NRC 1989, 153). (Pearce 2000, Chapter 3, 16) Pidgeon et al. (cited in Horlick-Jones and Jones 1993, 31) conclude that there are four different conceptual approaches to risk communication: (1) Scientific communications - top-down or one-way transmission of some message about a hazard from a particular expert source to a target non-expert audience. (2) Two-way exchange - an interactive process that recognizes the important role that feedback plays in any complex communication. (3) Wider institutional and cultural contexts stressed - communicator takes account of the actions of risk management institutions, possible conflicting messages, and the history of the hazard in question. (4) Risk communication as part of a wider political process - the process as a prerequisite to the enabling and empowerment of risk-bearing groups. (Pearce 2000, Chapter 3, 16)