The 7th Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC) National Workshop and Community Visit was held on 7-9 April 2009 in Bar-le-Duc, France. It was organized with teh assistance of the CLIS (the Local Information and Oversight Committee) and the financial and logistical support of Andra, France's National Agency for the Management of Radioactive Waste.

Yucca Mountain—that barren rise in the desert ninety miles from Las Vegas—is the nation‘s only site identified for the potential location of the first ge ological repository for commercially-generated HLNW and SNF. Many assume
that Yucca Mountain has geologic and climatic qualities that make it uniquely
suitable to isolate the thousands of metric tons of the world‘s most lethal, long lived waste currently accumulating at 104 operating nuclear power plants across the United States.
Unfortunately, Yucca Mountain is an exceptionally bad site,

The West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) Partnership was set up
to consider the issues that would be involved in taking part in a search to see if there is
anywhere in the Allerdale and/or Copeland areas suitable for a repository for higher activity
radioactive waste.
Over the last three years we have looked at reports and literature, heard from experts in the
field, commissioned independent research and invited reviews by independent experts.
We have placed a high priority on public and stakeholder engagement (PSE), carrying out

Beginning with the role of "stakeholders" - those whose interests are, knowingly or unknowingly, affected - in the siting of noxious facilities, this paper seeks to develop principles for acceptable and democratically arrived at polices related to problems associated with advances in and products of science and technology. Although widely regarded as a necessary condition for success, the principles underpinning stakeholder involvement, such as representativeness, are often violated in practice.

The aim of the Forum’s first workshop was to establish contacts amongst Forum participants and
to lay the basis of its future programme and methods of work. In order to give guidance to the FSC
and, at the same time, to give this initiative high-level input and visibility, the workshop was preceded
by a half-day inaugural event. Members of the NEA Radioactive Waste Management Committee and
invited speakers provided their perspectives in the area of stakeholder confidence. Over the following

The context of long-term radioactive waste management is being shaped
by changes in modern society. Values such as health, environmental protection
and safety are increasingly important, as are trends towards improved forms of
participatory democracy that demand new forms of risk governance in dealing
with hazardous activities. These changes in turn necessitate new forms of
dialogue and decision-making processes that include a large number of
stakeholders. The new dynamic of dialogue and decision-making process has

The main objective of this report is to identify conditions which affect public concern (either
increase or decrease) and political acceptance for developing and implementing programmes
for geologic disposal of long-lived radioactive waste. It also looks how citizens and relevant
actors can be associated in the decision making process in such a way that their input is
enriching the outcome towards a more socially robust and sustainable solution. Finally, it
aims at learning from the interaction how to optimise risk management addressing needs and