Power and participation in the field of radioactive waste disposal

ABSTRACT In the last decades of the 20th century, a ‘participatory turn’ could be detected in radioactive waste management (RWM). Participatory governance and public participation were put forward with the aim of democratizing policy and decision-making. As participatory processes are quite complex, an examination of how public participation is operationalized often offers no straightforward answers concerning the realizations of its democratizing intentions. This study contributes to understanding the ‘double bind’ of public participation. Moreover, we elaborate on how participation can lead to democratization and to the reinforcement of the status-quo. We draw on our experiences within a large-scale participatory project aimed at siting, developing, and building a repository for low and intermediate level radioactive waste (LILW) in Belgium. In our study, we combine a historical perspective of the already two decades-long participatory process with a micro-analysis of a specific participatory initiative.