Public Involvement Designed to Circumvent Public Concern? The “Participatory Turn” in European Nuclear Activities

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper we critically evaluate contemporary processes of public involvement in nuclear activities in Europe. Our focus is two collaborative “technology platforms” at the European level, one for implementing the geological disposal of nuclear waste, the other for rendering nuclear energy sustainable. In key documents and statements connected with the launching of these two platforms, public participation is assigned a vital role in their construction. While participation is presented in both cases as important for heightening the legitimacy of national nuclear industry programs and creating more room for public influence, the nature of this participation tends to remain obscure. From our analysis of the European Union documents and statements, informed by recent discussions in science and technology studies (STS), we conclude that “the participatory turn” in the nuclear sector focuses too strongly on procedural matters—on public involvement as a good in itself—while deflecting attention away from the possibilities of using participation as a more genuine means of enabling public issues and concerns to reach a higher level of articulation. Attempting to resolve legitimacy problems by conceiving of public participation as a way of maneuvering around public concerns is problematic since the latter must be more properly conceived as remaining the foundation for the former. If the issues calling for enlarged public participation in nuclear activities in Europe were awarded greater attention, then the legitimacy of these activities might indeed be improved. It can be imagined, for example, that the connections between the disposal of legacy wastes and the authorization of new build would be rendered more transparent.