Involving the Finnish public in nuclear facility licensing: participatory democracy and industrial bias

Abstract

The participatory turn in nuclear facility licensing produced the general aim to involve citizens in more direct ways in planning and decision making. However, purposes of public participation may be as manifold as actors involved. In Finland, the dominance of the proponent in the environmental impact assessment has produced forms of participation that may be functional in terms of their ability to inform citizens, to take their worries and concerns into account and subsequently to alleviate conflict. It is arguable whether this counts as “meaningful” participation as promoted by participatory democracy theories. Purposes need to be defined as well as the means to achieve meaningful public input. In addition, the empirical material for this study and contextual examples from Canada and Sweden hint at an associated problem concerning the absence of supervising institutions in assessment procedures.