The Evaluation of a Transboundary Risk Communication Programme: The Case of the Barseback Nuclear Power Plant. Ragnar E. Löfstedt, Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 5XH, UK
This paper evaluates Sweden's risk communication programme towards Denmark concerning the Barseback nuclear power plant located only twenty kilometres away from central Copenhagen. The paper addresses the question of whether the Swedish government and Sydkraft (the utility owning the power station) have been able to persuade the Danes that the two Barseback nuclear reactors are safe. Barseback is supposedly one of the world's most badly located nuclear plants in relation to population density, and as a result, there has been a great deal of political discussion on an international level concerning the future of the plant. The Danish policy makers want the plant closed down as soon as possible, while their Swedish counterparts, albeit aware of the plant's location, want to keep it open until it is socioeconomically possible to close it down and replace it with other energy sources and/or energy conservation. The debate concerning the future of the Barseback plant became important once again after the temporary shutdowns of the two reactors in the fall 1992 and in the fall of 1993 due to problems concerning their safety. In order to address the issue whether the Swedish Government/utility transboundary risk communication programme succeeded or not, qualitative and quantitative research methods in both Sweden and Denmark were conducted, including interviews with policy-makers, managers within the utility industry, and leading academics, as well as random telephone interviews with people living near the plant at both sides of the border, and a content analysis of a major newspaper in Sweden.