Confidence gap or timid trust building? The role of trust in the evolution of the nuclear waste governance in Germany

Abstract

Nuclear waste disposal represents one of the biggest socio-economic challenges of this century and probably for many centuries to come. It is a highly complex issue due to the interrelated technical, material, social, economic and political dimensions as well as the real or perceived risks involved. Distrust in technology, institutions, industry and even experts and decision-making processes are some of the reasons for opposition to nuclear waste disposal strategies. Our contribution analyses the dynamics of trust and distrust in Germany over the evolution of the search for a nuclear waste repository site in the last 40 years, identifies major turning points and explores the main factors that shaped trust/distrust relations over time. Site selection conflicts have often provoked ‘confidence gaps’ and site selection policies depend heavily on relationships based on mutual recognition and trust. We select key factors considered necessary to build trust in institutions and siting selection procedures and review recent changes in the institutional setting, including the establishment of a National Civil Society Board and the attempt to design more participatory procedures. Twenty-one stakeholders and experts were asked to rate some of the identified factors necessary for building trust and whether the measures carried out so far are sufficient to enhance trust in the relevant institutions and procedures and increase public confidence. Without a trust-building process for the siting, development and operation of a risky asset, a short-term attenuation of long-lasting conflicts is unlikely. The legacy of the past still plays an inhibiting role. In addition to expert judgement, evidence was derived from document analysis and participatory observation in the works of the German ‘Commission on the Storage of High-level Radioactive Waste’ and of the ‘National Civil Society Board’ as well as of events of regulator and operator.

Keywords:

• Trust and distrust
• institutions
• participation
• siting process
• nuclear waste

Acknowledgements

This text was written at the Environmental Policy Research Centre (FFU), Freie Universität Berlin as part of the TRANSENS project ‘Transdisciplinary research on the management of high-level radioactive waste in Germany’ funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the Volkswagen Foundation on behalf of the Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony (NMWK) from 2019 to 2024 (FK 02 E 11849C). Our analysis partly relies on data collected within the project SOTEC-radio supported in 2017- 2020 by the BMWi (Grant FK 02E11547C). We would like to thank the colleagues that carried out part of the interviews and shared the data. Further, we would like to express our thanks to the anonymous peer reviewers for their valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 cf. https://www.oecd-nea.org/rwm/fsc/, last accessed 27 January 2020.

2 See https://www.dictionary.com/e/mistrust-vs-distrust/

3 Interviewees are coded with a number (1-17) and a capital letter for the respective stakeholder group. Details about the groups and coding is provided in a table in the appendix.

4 For details, see Brunnengräber et al. 2015.

5 For details, see https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-g-n/germany.aspx, last accessed 30 January 2021.

6 Members are recruited amongst ‘normal’ citizens and respected public persons. The NBG conveys monthly in public meetings.

7 This statement was delivered at a NBG event dealing with open citizen dialogue and the start of the siting process in February 2018.

8 Independence is also affected by the way important positions in the institutions are appointed und who has the right to nominate.

9 The annual conferences should aid the interdisciplinary exchange and the identification of needs for action in the individual thematic fields of disposal and their interactions.

10 https://www.nationales-begleitgremium.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Downloads_Policy-Papers/PP_Geodaten.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=3, last accessed 20 June 2021.

Additional information

Funding

The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the Volkswagen Foundation on behalf of the Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony (NMWK) from 2019 to 2024 (grant no. FK 02 E 11849C).