This article discusses a process for finding insights that will allow federal agencies and environmental professionals to more effectively manage contaminated sites. The process is built around what Etzioni (1968) called mixed-scanning, that is, perpetually doing both comprehensive and detailed analyses and periodically re-scanning for new circumstances that change the decision-making environment. The article offers a checklist of 127 items, which is one part of the multiple-stage scanning process. The checklist includes questions about technology; public, worker, and ecological health; economic cost and benefits; social impacts; and legal issues. While developed for a DOE high-level radioactive waste application, the decision-making framework and specific questions can be used for other large-scale remediation and management projects.