European Union Contract Number: FP6-036413. Deliverable 23b. Towards Implementation of Transparency and Participation in Radioactive Waste Management Programmes, ARGONA Final Summary Report

The point of departure for the ARGONA project is that participation and transparency are key elements of effective risk governance and the acronym ARGONA stands for "Arenas for Risk Governance ". Given the overall objectives, ARGONA intended to demonstrate how participation and transparency link to the political and legal systems and how new approaches can be implemented in radioactive waste management programmes. Therefore, studies have been undertaken of the institutional and cultural context within which processes of participation and transparency take place in order to understand how the processes can be implemented. The project has also included theoretical studies in order to base participation and transparency on a firm footing, a number of case studies in the Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden and UK, as well as implementation in the Czech Republic. Although the focus has been on radioactive waste, the findings are expected to be relevant for decision-making on complex policy issues in a much wider context. The project has thus included both theory and case studies. As a point of departure, this report starts with a brief description in chapter 2 of the status of participation and transparency in ARGONA countries. Furthermore, the RISCOM model application in the Czech Republic, described in chapter 3, provides an example of a how a transparency arena can be organized as a formal step towards more inclusiveness and clarity. The chapter also describes the testing and application in the real world of a nuclear waste management programme of other participation and dialogue approaches that were performed in the Czech Republic. Chapter 4 deals with the policy making structures that exist, such as Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directives, with the aim of exploring the framework within which new arenas for participation and transparency can be formed. Policy making structures and legal systems are developed within social and cultural contexts. Chapter 5 emphasizes that contemporary social trends favor initiatives for transparency and participation but also that they have to be adapted to local circumstances. Chapter 6 deals with another central element of transparency and participation, namely risk communication. Initiatives for transparency and participation don_t arise by themselves but are often introduced by catalysts, in the form of _mediators_, and chapter 7 focuses on their role as well as on different forms of mediation. The aim of chapter 8 is to place ARGONA work on a firm theoretical base by analysing the relations between the deliberative arenas, transparency arenas and representative democracy. Chapter 9 addresses the problem that there seems to be no systematic methodology available for comparing approaches to transparency and participation, allowing the selection of appropriate techniques for use in particular circumstances. Chapter 10 deals with local compensation which is a matter of great interest for potential host communities for nuclear waste installations. Referring to the _ARGONA end Users Conference_, chapter 11 puts the practical implications of research in focus and asks the question how recent research can actually improve the governance of nuclear waste management in Europe. Finally in chapter 12 we make some overall conclusions while referring the reader to suggested guidelines for transparency and participation, reported separately.