Public participation in radioactive waste management: Location of centralized temporary storage facilities

Abstract

Meanings of public participation in environmental conflicts surpass legislation and go beyond the normative. Participation as a communication process is not only a useful tool in environmental conflict-solving, but also a key component in order to define actors and meanings about scientific and technological risks.
This article analyzes the conflict arising in Spain around the ATC project for the centralized temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel (SF) and high level radioactive waste (HLW) and its associated technology center. The aim is to determine to what extent various actors and the general public participated in the site selection process, and to what extent they can participate in the authorization procedure of the ATC and in the management of radioactive waste.
Qualitative analysis shows that the different interpretations of public participation by the stakeholders involved in the conflict, as well as the differences between the socio-political, administrative and legal dimensions of the case, make public participation difficult.
We conclude that public participation in the nuclear field should be specifically regulated and information committees may be effective in engaging the public in participation processes, but that the institutional logic limits the incorporation of new voices in those processes. Despite efforts to evolve from a technical and hierarchical approach to a social scientific view, it appears that the difficulties in the democratic management of radioactive waste will remain.