Monitoring and the Risk Governance of Repository Development and Staged Closure:Exploratory Engagement Activity in Three European Countries.

This report is the product of research activity within the EC Seventh Framework Programme “Monitoring Developments for Safe Repository Operation and Staged Closure” (MoDeRn) Project. This project aims to further develop understanding of the role of monitoring in staged implementation of geological disposal to a level of description that is closer to the actual implementation of monitoring. It focuses on monitoring conducted to confirm the basis of the long term safety case and on monitoring conducted to inform on options available to manage the stepwise disposal process from construction to closure (including e.g. the option of waste retrieval). This report investigates the potential of citizen stakeholder engagement in the identification of monitoring objectives and the development of monitoring strategies for geological disposal of high level waste (HLW) or spent nuclear fuel (SNF). It builds on an earlier MoDeRn report describing monitoring the safe disposal of radioactive waste as a socio-technical activity (Bergmans, Elam, Simmons and Sundqvist 2012)

Addressing the Long-Term Management of High-level and Long-lived Nuclear Wastes as a Socio-Technical Problem:Insights from InSOTEC

This report summarises the lessons to be drawn from the three-year collaborative social sciences research project ‘International Socio-Technical Challenges for implementing geological disposal’ (InSOTEC). Adopting an approach that is relatively novel in this context, the project focused its investigations on the complex interplay between what are typically seen as distinct technical and social dimensions of radioactive waste management (RWM), in particular in the context of the design and implementation of geological disposal. The aim of the InSOTEC project was not to arrive at a prescription for facilitating the implementation of geological disposal, but to foster and deepen the growing awareness of the interaction between social and technical aspects of RWM that has been evident within the technical expert community by providing stakeholders and experts of all kinds with a better understanding of the processes that shape the challenges which confront them. The report brings together insights for RWM that have been generated within the different research strands of the project and offers observations on their implications for practice, addressing in particular the processes of research and development, public and stakeholder involvement in RWM, and long-term governance of geological disposal of higher activity radioactive wastes

Co-producing sustainability indicators for the port of Antwerp: how sustainability reporting creates new discursive spaces for concern and mobilisation

In this article we discuss the port of Antwerp’s sustainability reporting initiative, reporting on the joint performance of the harbour community, as a process of co-production. By means of ‘stakeholder elicitation’ and in interaction with the port’s sustainability reporting initiative we investigated potentially meaningful indicators (mainly qualitative in nature) for environmental nuisance and citizen participation as aspects of responsible care. Reflecting on this work, we argue that such initiatives not only produce new sustainability indicators and standards, but also encourage dialogue through which identities are formed and a sense of (port) community is established

Co-producing sustainability indicators for the port of Antwerp: how sustainability reporting creates new discursive spaces for concern and mobilisation

In this article we discuss the port of Antwerp’s sustainability reporting initiative, reporting on the joint performance of the harbour community, as a process of co-production. By means of ‘stakeholder elicitation’ and in interaction with the port’s sustainability reporting initiative we investigated potentially meaningful indicators (mainly qualitative in nature) for environmental nuisance and citizen participation as aspects of responsible care. Reflecting on this work, we argue that such initiatives not only produce new sustainability indicators and standards, but also encourage dialogue through which identities are formed and a sense of (port) community is established

The participatory turn in radioactive waste management:Deliberation and the social-technical divide

National policies for long-term management of radioactive waste have for decades been driven by technical experts. The pursuit of these technocratic policies led in many countries to conflict with affected communities. Since the late 1990s, however, there has been a turn to more participatory approaches. This participatory turn reflects widespread acknowledgement in the discourse of policy actors and implementing organisations of the importance of social aspects of radioactive waste management and the need to involve citizens and their representatives in the process. This appears to be an important move towards democratisation of this particular field of technological decision making but, despite these developments, technical aspects are still most often brought into the public arena only after technical experts have defined the ‘problem’ and decided upon a ‘solution’. This maintains a notional divide between the treatment of technical and social aspects of radioactive waste management and raises pressing questions about the kind of choice affected communities are given if they are not able to debate fully the technical options. The article aims to contribute to better understanding and addressing this situation by exploring the complex entanglement of the social and the technical in radioactive waste management policy and practice, analysing the contingent configurations that emerge as sociotechnical combinations. Drawing upon empirical examples from four countries that have taken the participatory turn - Belgium, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom – the article describes the different ways in which sociotechnical combinations have been constructed, and discusses their implications for future practice