Cotton, Matthew David

Presas i Puig, Albert

White Rose Research Online

This is a repository copy of 60 years of societal engagement with nuclear energy : learningfrom historical experience in 20 countries.White Rose Research Online URL for this paper:https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/117923/Version: Published VersionConference or Workshop Item:Cotton, Matthew David orcid.org/0000-0002-8877-4822 and Presas i Puig, Albert (2017) 60 years of societal engagement with nuclear energy : learning from historical experience in 20 countries. In: European Nuclear Young Generation Forum, 11-15 Jun 2017, Victoria Warehouse. eprints@whiterose.ac.ukhttps://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/Reuse This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND) licence. This licence allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to the original authors. More information and the full terms of the licence here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing eprints@whiterose.ac.uk including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. IntroductionThe History of Nuclear Energy and Society )HoNESt( project responds tothe Call for the Horizon 2020 Euratom NFRP 12 – 2014 Work Program .The aim of the call is to fund research that focuses upon:• Understanding of the development of nuclear energy in Europe• Helping to improve communication and interaction with civil society.It has two main elements:1. A comparative and transnational historical analysis of nucleardevelopments and their relations with society, covering more than 20countries over the past 60 years.2. A social scientific analysis of engagementwith nuclear energy – itsunderlying principles, rationales and futuresWhat we have done so far• 20 short county reports briefly describe the political, economic and social context in which nuclear developments and interaction with civilsociety have taken place.• Social scientific analysis of the key drivers and underlying principles of engagement across 8 key case study countries in more detail..Wemapped across 4 dimensions1. Health & Environment : Safety concerns and other control and management-related factors, perceptions of positive and/or negative effectson environmental issues including water, soil, air pollution and climate change2. Economics: for example job creation, perceptions of industrial progress and new business opportunities, economic losses, security of energysupply, consumer economics )electricity bills(, or cost of nuclear programme. Energy supply and national energy independence, thePromoters and Regulators that influence these factors. The economic context e.g. impact of low energy prices and open markets. 3. Socio-cultural - subjective perceptions of risk, the perception of threat to social and territorial identities, and to certain traditions, culturalvalues and lifestyles.4. Political-institutional : The context of social relations in which these responses to risk take place matters: e.g. credibility, trust, perceptionof injustice/ inequality, and “good governance”.What we will do next:• Translating, linking and bridging history and social science• Deriving an understanding perceptions and mechanisms forsocietal engagement from the historical experience• Aplpying social scientific theories of institutional analysis• Develop a Theory of Change• Performing a backcasting analysis• Undergo a comprehensive process of dissemination andengagementWhat we have found so farNuclear energy does not follow a straight line, nor any established rationality or a single pattern. Controversy about nuclear energy doesn’tshow a uniform development across all case countries and time frames. The reality is complex – there’s no single lesson applicable to all cases.However, two factors stand out:• There is no relationship between the perception of benefits generated by an activity or technology and the perception of the risks it involves• Public perception of the controllability of the technology is a key factor for social acceptance.Matthew CottonDepartment of Environment, University of Yorkmatthew.cotton@york.ac.ukAlbert Presas I PuigUniversitat Pompeu Fabraalbert.presas@upf.eduFurther readingGeneral trust in institutions matters,trust in Governmental institutions isstrongly tied to trust in nuclearauthoritiesTraditions, cultural and social valuesand beliefs, strongly influence publicperceptions about nuclear energyEnergy supply and national energyindependence are key economicfactors. Specifically the impact of lowenergy prices and open marketsPublic participation - differentstakeholders argue over differentdimensions which create monologuesrather than dialogues.There is no common denominator asa basis for dialogue and for buildingmutual trust. One-way, top-downcommunications are the mostfrequentways of communicatingacross all case studies.Bi-directional , multi-stakeholdercommunication tends to be limited toexceptional moments and/or to local)rather than national( territories.Looking to the future - A theory of changeIllustrates how and why a change is expected to happen. Maps out or “fills in” the “missing middle” between what anengagement program or change initiative does and how these leadto desired goals being achieved.BackcastingWewill identify desired long-term engagement goals and thenwork backwards from these to identify all the conditions)outcomes( that must be in place )and how these related to oneanother causally( for the goals to occur. This is how a theory ofchange is constructed.Backcasting is one way to achieve this. It is a planning method thatwhich starts with defining a desirable future and then worksbackwards to identify policies and programs that will connect thatspecified future to the present. In this way we can plan differenttypes of engagement programs that are sensitive to the historicalcontext identified in the historical analysis stages of the project.

60 years of societal engagement with nuclear energy:learning from historical experience in 20 countries

60 years of societal engagement with nuclear energy : learning from historical experience in 20 countries

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60 years of societal engagement with nuclear energy : learning from historical experience in 20 countries

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