Guidelines Are Wide Lines: France's Nuclear Waste Programme Assessed on the Facility Siting Guidelines. C.M. Mays, Institut Symlog, Cachan, and M. Poumadère, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, Cachan, France
In the past ten years, the social management of radioactive wastes in European countries can be described as having made a radical transition from an authoritarian paradigm to a socially responsive paradigm (1). The old paradigm was probably substantially similar from country to country, a direct inheritance of "defense secrecy." The new paradigm is multiform, reflecting distinct cultural and political traditions, and formulated on different empirical or philosophical bases. We have studied France's new paradigm and programme. A 1989 crisis in the authoritarian-style search for high level nuclear waste storage sites led to Parliamentary hearings. A 1991 law recast the management process as "responsible, transparent and democratic."
The law' s provisions and consequent siting efforts can be compared to the Facility Siting Guidelines developed elsewhere by Kunreuther et col. (cf. 2). Each guideline point can be seen to be addressed, albeit with a certain skew. This fit tends to validate both the Guidelines and the French programme, widely admired by the international radwaste community.
However, while the Guidelines are resolutely pro-public participation in decision making, France's process relies heavily on representative, and not direct, participation. This may be an explanation for some grassroots opposition still experienced in France.
Confronting the Guidelines with this independent, working national programme suggests that 1) the Guidelines will be reinterpreted in each culture and 2) the Guidelines might well be examined for any North American cultural artifacts they may contain.
References:
Mays, C. & Poumadère, M. (expected 1996) Uncertain communication: Institutional discourse in nuclear waste repository siting. In V. Sublet, V. Covello & T. Tinker (eds.) Scientific uncertainty and its influence on the public communications process. Boston, Dordrecht, London: Kluwer.
Easterling, D. & Kunreuther,
H. (I 995) The dilemma of siting a high-level nuclear waste
repository. Boston, Dordrecht, London: Kluwer.