Nuclear waste management from a local perspective: Reflections for a Better Governance Final Report

During the 1990s, nuclear waste programmes in nearly every concerned country met many difficulties. Nuclear waste management was seen as a technical issue, and the local communities were only involved in the last stage of the decision-making process when almost all components of the decision were already fixed. The management of high level radioactive waste is now recognised as a complex decision-making process entailing technical, ethical, social, political and economic dimensions where no solution can be reached solely on the basis of technical considerations. While this issue is acknowledged as a problem for the community as a whole, a major dimension in radioactive waste remains the fact that waste management is a global problem looking for a local solution. For this reason, there is an increasing need to have society, and notably directly concerned local people, involved in the decision-making process. For any solution, a sound contract between the national community and a local community is a pre-requisite. To reach such a contract there is a need for mutual trust between the two entities.</break>