Session: 07-01 - Public Involvement, Crosscutting Issues, Global Participation

Paper Number: 109822

109822 - Transparency in Establishment of National Radioactive Waste Facilities - Criteria, Cases, Recommendations 

The Civil Society (CS) experts involved in ROUTES (Waste Management routes in Europe from cradle to grave) work package of the EURAD programme investigated how the pillars of the Aarhus convention together with a broader understanding of Transparency and Public Participation (T&PP) is and can be transposed into Radioactive Waste Management (RWM), with reference to the establishment of Radioactive Waste (RW) facilities, primarily geological disposal, in different national contexts. The criteria for T&PP in the development of national RW facilities are proposed and based on the RW Directive, the Aarhus Convention and the CS BEPPER report.

To obtain a broader understanding of the positions of different actors (waste management organisations, technical support organisations, regulators and academia) engaged in RWM, the questionnaire was submitted to ROUTES members and to the CS larger group. The focus of the questionnaire concerns transparency in the establishment of national RW facilities and include five topics: effective access to information, public participation, justice (Aarhus Convention), resources (BEPPER report) and T&PP in the development of the national programmes on RWM submitted to the European Commission pursuant to the RW Directive. Nine national cases from advanced and early stage RW programmes (Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, France, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden and United Kingdom) are presented and discussed within the context and description of the access to the pillars of good T&PP. Finally, a quality assessment is provided, together with lessons learned and descriptions, analyses and conclusions with general recommendations from the case studies, focusing on how interaction with CS could more generally and robustly contribute to the establishment of national RW facilities.

Presenting Author: Nadja Zeleznik EIMV

Presenting Author Biography: Nadja Železnik, physicist, master degree in physics and in reactor physics (Faculty of Mathematics and Physics) and Ph.D. in psychology (Faculty of Arts), all University of Ljubljana.
Nadja is a specialist for nuclear technology and radioactive waste management, including emergency preparedness and response and for risk perception, communication, education and training in environmental projects. She has more than 30 years of experience in research activities, as civil servant with governmental examination, in the implementation organisation and in the technical support organisation. Her deliverables included strategies and programs for nuclear area, development of new legislation, cost assessment and investment programs for different projects, feasibility studies for environmental projects, remediation plans and their implementations, safety assessment and reports for nuclear facilities, radiological investigations and dose assessments, QA/QC plans and procedures, communication strategies and plans, assessments of public acceptability and related surveys, education and training in the communication and stakeholder involvement, development of information materials and tools and related research. She has been involved in more than 30 international projects, also as coordinator and leader and is an author of more than 200 papers and several chapters in books. She serves also as an expert for International Agency For Atomic Energy and was evaluator of different proposal in EU framework programs.