Stepwise Approach to Decision Making for Long-term Radioactive Waste Management Experience, Issues and Guiding Principles

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
been characterised as a shift from a more traditional “decide, announce and
defend” model, focused on technical assurance, to one of “engage, interact and
co-operate”, for which both technical assurance and quality of the process are of
comparable importance to a constructive outcome. Consequently, the scientific
and engineering aspects of waste management safety are no longer of exclusive
importance. Organisational ability to communicate and to adapt to the new
context has emerged as a critical contributor to public confidence.