Nuclear Citizens Jury: From Local Deliberations to Transboundary and Transgenerational Legal Dilemmas

Abstract

ABSTRACTSouth Australia is home to one of the world’s largest uranium mines for export, but does not participate in further stages of the nuclear fuel cycle. In 2016, the Government of South Australia held a series of public engagement activities about the possibility of nuclear waste storage in the state. Two citizens’ juries, collectively called the “Nuclear Citizens Jury,” were the centrepiece of the series. This paper investigates jury members’ perspectives on nuclear waste storage and the deliberative process. The Nuclear Citizens Jury was effective as a local deliberation process that offered learning opportunities, gave access to information and made decision-making transparent. However, the process did not result in consensus or consent. Rather, jury members highlighted concerns about the democratic representativeness of the process, Aboriginal and transgenerational consent and unresolved national dimensions. The Nuclear Citizens Jury underscored the need for deliberative processes to consider multiple geographies of law, representation, and consent.