International Programs
Several research programs in Europe have focused on questions and issues related to public participation in decision-making processes and meetings with the public, as related to radioactive waste disposal. COWAM, which stands for Community Waste Management, was proposed as a project to the European Commission Research Directorate in 1999. The project began in 2000 and has been conducted in three phases, i.e. COWAM 1, COWAM 2, and COWAM in Practice. The Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC) was created in 2000 by the Nuclear Energy Agency. It has been an ongoing activity designed to promote the sharing of international experience in addressing the societal dimension of radioactive waste management. InSOTEC is a collaborative social sciences research project that was initiated in 2007 and currently is in its second three-year phase. The project is focused on the complex interplay between technical and social questions and issues as they are manifested in the area of radioactive waste management. The RISCOM Pilot Project was jointly launched by the Swedish regulatory authorities, i.e. the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI) and the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority (SSI) in 1996. Work on the RISCOM project has focused on Sweden, but the RISCOM II phase of the project has expanded to include examples from other countries, i.e. France, Finland, the Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom.|
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