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Open Access 2023 | Open Access | Buch

The Future of Radioactive Waste Governance

Lessons from Europe

herausgegeben von: Maarten Arentsen, Rinie van Est

Verlag: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

Buchreihe : Energiepolitik und Klimaschutz. Energy Policy and Climate Protection

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Über dieses Buch

This Open Access book examines the radioactive waste management policies of ten European countries: Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Most countries are in the process of planning and creating final storage solutions, while none has yet finalized this process. Over the past decades many countries have been renewing their decision-making processes and the institutions that support them. The book provides 16 lessons that may advance the future democratic decision-making process around radioactive waste management.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

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Chapter 1. Introduction: The Governance Challenge of Radioactive Waste Management

Abstract

Long-term radioactive waste management (RWM) is a multidimensional and multi-level governance challenge. This chapter introduces and explains a governance ecosystem framework as tool to comparatively analyze how ten European countries covered by the book, deal with the complexities of the governance challenge of RWM.

Rinie van Est, Maarten Arentsen, Romy Dekker

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Chapter 2. Long-Term Radioactive Waste Management in the Netherlands: Seeking Guidance for Decision-Making

Abstract

The Netherlands pursues a ‘dual strategy’—national and international—with regard to the management of radioactive waste and spent fuel. On the national level an above-ground facility was built in the 1990s to store radioactive waste for a period of at least 100 years. By around the year 2130 a geological disposal facility is envisaged to be operational. The Netherlands also pursues an international strategy, which leaves the possibility open for collaboration with other European Union Member States to establish a shared geological disposal facility. Currently, the country’s radioactive waste policy lacks a concrete step-by-step decision-making process to implement the above dual strategy. This chapter identifies several decision-making challenges that need to be addressed, such as clarifying the principles of retrievability and reversibility, setting up criteria to reserve potential search locations for a geological disposal facility, developing a long-term, integral, participatory knowledge agenda, strengthening the knowledge landscape and developing a participatory decision-making process that enjoys public and political support.

Romy Dekker, Vincent Lagendijk, Roos Walstock, Rinie van Est

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Chapter 3. Nuclear Waste Governance in Italy: Between Participation Rhetoric and Regionalism

Abstract

Italy has abandoned its nuclear power ambitions in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster and following the decision of the popular referendum held on 8 November 1987. However, nuclear waste from four permanently shut down nuclear plants, various research reactors, reprocessing and fuel fabrication facilities represents a pressing problem. The nuclear waste governance in Italy is characterised by a complex, intertwined relationship and interaction between the different political-territorial levels from the national, the regional to the local. Recently, after a long period of incoherent stop and go nuclear research and industrial policies, local opposition and a subsequent deadlock, the mandatory search for a national site has started taking shape. The national map of potentially suitable area released in 2021 was followed by a series of consultations to which several institutional and civil society actors participated. In January 2022, the public consultation was concluded and in March 2022 the proposed National Map of Suitable Areas (NACI) was submitted to the Ministry of Ecological Transition for approval. The final site search process should lead to the location of a site, which should initially house 78,000 cubic metres of intermediate and low-level waste as well as 17,000 cubic metres of HLW. The latter should be stored for a maximum of 50 years to be then placed in a deep geological repository about which nothing has been revealed at the moment. This challenges institutional actors, like the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the regulator and the operator to adopt inclusive and decentralised forms of decision making. The process is therefore expected to be slow and cumbersome and will require more democratic approaches to nuclear waste management.

Maria Rosaria Di Nucci, Andrea Prontera

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Chapter 4. Do You Care About High-Level Radioactive Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel? Opportunities for Co-Constructing an Appropriate Governance-Ecosystem in Belgium

Abstract

This chapter discusses key dimensions for the future of high-level radioactive waste governance (HLW) in Belgium. It highlights elements that a diverse set of stakeholders considered to be of importance for a national public debate, and puts them in the context of the theoretical notion of ‘matter of care’, as developed by Maria Puig De La Bellacassa (2017). Rather than highlight what perspective every type of actor develops, these perspectives are considered as an interrelated collective in which each has its own merits and reasons for existence.

Our results show that it will be very difficult to define a one-sided governance approach that covers virtually all dimensions and expectations from all stakeholders in a satisfactory way. Multiple efforts and a mix of initiatives and responsive actions towards new developments will be needed. Approaching this from a perspective of care allows an empathic attitude towards the needs and expectations of all current and future stakeholders in this debate. Caring means assuming that sociotechnical uncertainties will remain, regardless of the preferred long-term option for radioactive waste. Caring is also about allowing real spaces for others who care to express what they care about and how they desire to do so. Caring is not about providing one pre-fixed initial programme, but is about ensuring the waste is being taken care of by means of a collective and open decision-making and governance process.

Anne Bergmans, Catherine Fallon, Ron Cörvers, Céline Parotte

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Chapter 5. The Long Road Towards the Soft Nuclear Repository State: Nuclear Waste Governance in Germany

Abstract

The decision-making processes in the field of radioactive waste in the Federal Republic Germany have been dominated for long time by the decide-announce-defend (DAD) strategy. In response, the movement against nuclear power and the transport and storage of nuclear waste grew strong and continues to be a key political actor in the current siting process. Following the decision in 2011 to phase out nuclear power by 2022 and with a view to the failures of the past, an ambitious Site Selection Act (StandAG) was passed in 2013 and amended in 2017. This provided the frame for the establishment of new institutions and a far-reaching participation procedure. In this respect, the StandAG represents a key milestone for the new start of the site search for high-level waste (HLW) based on the principle of the blank map and has contributed to modify the nuclear waste governance system. In 2020, following the release of a preliminary report with an evaluation of regions with potentially suitable host rock formations for a geologic nuclear repository, the operator BGE designated around 90 potential areas. The search for a site that provides the greatest possible safety and security potential sites is being accompanied by a participative process involving various stakeholder groups. It was planned to find a suitable, accepted location by 2031. However, in November 2022 the operator BGE announced that the search for a site would last longer, possibly between 2046 and 2068. The process is thus confronted with significant challenges and Germany must work out a concept for a long-term temporary storage facility as in several European countries. This chapter analyses the long-term multi-level governance of HLW in Germany and the evolution of new institutions with a focus on the domains: politics & administration, legislation, science & technology and civil society and the interaction between them.

Procedural fairness and inclusiveness of the process remain important and necessary prerequisites for building public confidence and for the social acceptability of the political siting decisions. The chapter maintains that the legal framework and the StandAG leave many unresolved issues, but still permits extensive room for manoeuvre and represents an opportunity for new and expanded forms of participation to be pursued.

Maria Rosaria Di Nucci, Achim Brunnengräber

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Chapter 6. The Melancholic Lock: High-Level Radioactive Waste Governance in Spain

Abstract

The attempts to find a consistent solution for high-level radioactive waste in Spain illustrates the challenges entailed by inclusive nuclear waste governance in a country with a multi-level governance system, characterised by a complex and intertwined political decision-making process, where the nuclear issue is used instrumentally by political parties, in a social context with highly sceptical public opinion towards nuclear energy. Nuclear waste management in Spain has been influenced by environmental legislation that increasingly requires public transparency and openness to citizen participation, mainly due to the internalisation of European Directives. This has been reflected in the approach to managing the location of the repository for high-level nuclear waste, so far without success due to the structure of the nuclear conflict in Spain, which relegates the role of science and technology to marginal positions in the debate. Instead of a “politicization of nuclear issues”, in Spain, opening the nuclear issue from the closed circles of experts and their organisations to a broad public debate has created a “nuclearization of politics”, leaving limited room for counter-expertise, as nuclear-related arguments are employed opportunistically to serve broader political aims. Since the actors respond to a logic based on the mobilisation of emotions and feelings of grievance in the public sphere, generating trust between actors becomes quite difficult.

Josep Espluga-Trenc, Ana Prades

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Chapter 7. Who Decides What is Safe? Experiences from Radioactive Waste Governance in Switzerland

Abstract

In Switzerland, the selection procedure for a nuclear waste repository site is characterized by deliberation and debate between different governmental levels, and lay persons and experts. The Swiss democratic model has been adapted in order to allow for direct interaction between the federal authorities and the affected communities. In addition, the rather pragmatic approach to finding solutions to emerging conflicts has contributed to the good progress the site selection procedure has made so far. In this chapter, the authors discuss the basic characteristics of the Swiss approach that have proven helpful so far as well as possible critical issues. They conclude with a discussion on potentials and pitfalls of the future governance ecosystem.

Sophie Kuppler, Anne Eckhardt, Peter Hocke

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Chapter 8. UK Nuclear Waste Policy: 50 Wasted Years

Abstract

For the past 50 years, the UK nuclear industry has characterised disposal of radioactive waste as a social problem not a technology problem. Yet nearly 50 years after the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution’s report, the UK is still several decades away from building facilities that will provide a safe, permanent home for all but the lowest-level categories of waste. Attempts to site new facilities have repeatedly failed. In 2007, the approach changed from one driven by identifying an ideal site then implementing it, to one that placed consent from the hosting community at the forefront. The new policy appears risky, with little confidence that it will identify a site for the more dangerous waste that is both technically and politically acceptable. If a suitable site cannot be identified, policymakers will have to face the unpalatable option of long-term surface storage of highly radioactive waste.

Stephen Thomas

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Chapter 9. The Governance Ecosystem of Radioactive Waste Management in France: Governing of and with Mistrust

Abstract

France is one of the forerunners in advancing towards implementation of a high-level radioactive waste (HLW) repository. The state agency responsible for radioactive management, Andra, plans to start the construction of the “Cigéo” deep geological disposal facility in 2022, a pilot testing phase in 2025, and operation in 2040–2050. Although supported by most parliamentarians and key stakeholders in the region, the project continues to generate controversy and recurrent clashes between opponents and the police. The French nuclear sector has been among the pioneers in developing and institutionalising “counter-expertise”, the relations between civil society and project promoters have been tense, and the media have played a vigilant watchdog role, especially since the Chernobyl accident in 1986. In consequence, the authorities and industry have designed a range of response mechanisms, including the requirement for the project to remain reversible, the establishment of permanent and ad hoc multi-stakeholder bodies, and experiments at “co-creation of knowledge” by experts and citizens holding distinct types of expertise. The long and conflict-ridden history of the project provides numerous useful lessons on the multiple functions of mistrust as both a driver and a mechanism of articulation across domains of governance, the role of reversibility as a key notion helping to manage mistrust and cross-domain interaction, and the impact of the nuclear-sector legacies and path dependencies in shaping high-level radioactive waste governance.

Markku Lehtonen

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Chapter 10. Radioactive Waste Management in Sweden: Decision-Making in a Context of Scientific Controversy

Abstract

In early 2022 the Swedish government took a decision to allow the construction of a repository for spent nuclear fuel at the Forsmark nuclear power plant. This chapter describes the long process that preceded the decision and started in the 1970s. Both the siting of the repository and the case made for its long-term safety has seen controversies. In particular, there has been a science-based debate on the long-term safety of using copper as a material for encapsulation of the spent nuclear fuel. The government’s decision relied on claims from the industry and the nuclear regulator that the Swedish KBS multi-barrier concept could still be safe enough. Whether this view will survive the coming decade until the repository will be ready for operation remains to be seen.

Johan Swahn

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Chapter 11. The Finnish Solution to Final Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel

Abstract

Fortum Oyj and Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO), the two companies that own the operating units in Finnish nuclear power plants, in 1996 formed a joint company, Posiva Oy, to deal with their nuclear wastes. This includes both the low- and medium-level radioactive waste and the high-active used nuclear fuel. Several locations were considered before the choice of Olkiluoto in 1999 and its acceptance by the municipality of Eurajoki in 2000. In 2010, the Finnish Government granted a decision-in-principle required by the Finnish Nuclear Act to Posiva Oy regarding the construction of a final disposal site for nuclear wastes including the above-ground encapsulation plant and the final disposal facility called Onkalo. In 2015, the Government granted the construction licence for this entity to be built. The site already includes the operating nuclear power plants (OL-1 and OL-2) of TVO and the OL-3 unit which has been under construction since 2005 and shall be taken into use in 2022. After several delays this is the timetable according to the most recent information in early Spring 2021 provided by TVO. Thus, Finland is the first country in the world to enter the implementation phase of spent nuclear fuel. A future challenge is the nuclear waste of possible new nuclear power plants not included in the plans of Posiva Oy.

Jarmo Vehmas, Aleksis Rentto, Jyrki Luukkanen, Burkhard Auffermann, Jari Kaivo-oja

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Chapter 12. European Lessons for the Governance of Long-Term Radioactive Waste Management

Abstract

Based on the detailed analyses in the previous ten chapters, this chapter empirically answers the book’s central question: What lessons do the European country studies teach us about the governance of long-term radioactive waste management? The chapter develops the answer in 17 lessons structured along the dimensions of the governance ecosystem framework introduced and explained in chapter 1 of the book.

Rinie van Est, Maarten Arentsen

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Titel: The Future of Radioactive Waste Governance
herausgegeben von: Maarten Arentsen
Rinie van Est
Verlag: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-658-40496-3
Print ISBN: 978-3-658-40495-6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-40496-3