Ph. D. Thesis - Governance & Long-Lived Highly Radioactive Nuclear Waste
Posted by Patrick | Filed under Sociologie
Here is the Ph.D. thesis project I wrote last month for the University of Liège and the SCK-CEN. As it has been rejected, I offer it to the world. The pleasure is mine.
The title was “How do deliberative governance processes support the integration of multiplicity of expertises and the plurality of norms of justices ? The case of high level radioactive waste”. It’s not that bad that the project didn’t make it : I could never remember the title.
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Preamble
Although R&D programmes on the safe management of high level radioactive wastes have been conducted in some of the major industrial countries for some time now, there is still a degree of scientific controversy with regard to the best management option. One of the many issues facing high level radioactive waste (HLW) management is the need to manage some wastes over extremely long periods of time (ranging from several generations to periods longer than recorded history), raising questions about not only our scientific, technical and organisational ability to face this challenge, but also the ethical consequences of our choices. As a consequence, RWM in general (and HLW management in particular) has been a high-profile issue at different times and in many places worldwide over the past 30 or more years. Faced with problems of securing public and/or political acceptance and support, there has been an observable shift of “problem framing” in RWM from purely technical issues towards innovation in governance. Yet, this shift has not lead to any major change in Belgium regarding HLW management.
Developing a governance project for the management of radioactive waste is a task of high responsibility, particularly for HLW. On the social and political sides, there are no “ready to use” rules for achieving this task. Due attention must be given to the tuning of the governance procedures, at each stage of the process, from the scenario analysis until the long term follow-up of the implemented decision. As there is no “magical formula” fitting every governance situation, the proposal of this Ph.D. is to study both the normative and the empirical sides of governance applied to HLW management. By questioning the criteria for effective governance processes under conditions of high and long term uncertainties, we hope to increase the chances of success (e.g. in terms of acceptance, of duration, etc.) of the future decision-making.
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