Communication on the Safety Case for a Deep Geological Repository
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Radioactive Waste Management 2017 Communication on the Safety Case for a Deep Geological Repository Communication on the Safety Case for a Deep Geological Repository NEA Radioactive Waste Management Communication on the Safety Case for a Deep Geological Repository © OECD 2017 NEA No. 7336 NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT The OECD is a unique forum where the governments of 35 democracies work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalisation. The OECD is also at the forefront of efforts to understand and to help governments respond to new developments and concerns, such as corporate governance, the information economy and the challenges of an ageing population. The Organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and work to co-ordinate domestic and international policies. The OECD member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Commission takes part in the work of the OECD. OECD Publishing disseminates widely the results of the Organisation’s statistics gathering and research on economic, social and environmental issues, as well as the conventions, guidelines and standards agreed by its members. This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) was established on 1 February 1958. Current NEA membership consists of 31 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency also take part in the work of the Agency. The mission of the NEA is: – to assist its member countries in maintaining and further developing, through international co-operation, the scientific, technological and legal bases required for a safe, environmentally friendly and economical use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes; – to provide authoritative assessments and to forge common understandings on key issues, as input to government decisions on nuclear energy policy and to broader OECD policy analyses in areas such as energy and sustainable development. Specific areas of competence of the NEA include the safety and regulation of nuclear activities, radioactive waste management, radiological protection, nuclear science, economic and technical analyses of the nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear law and liability, and public information. The NEA Data Bank provides nuclear data and computer program services for participating countries. This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found online at: www.oecd.org/publishing/corrigenda. © OECD 2017 You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgment of the OECD as source and copyright owner is given. All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to [email protected]. Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at [email protected] or the Centre français d'exploitation du droit de copie (CFC) [email protected]. Cover photos: Conceptual figure of a deep geological repository (RWM, UK); Communication group (© iStockphoto.com/vm). FOREWORD Foreword The mission of the Integration Group for the Safety Case (IGSC) of the NEA Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC) is to assist member countries in developing effective safety cases supported by a robust scientific technical basis. In addition to addressing technical aspects, the IGSC also works to address the strategic and policy aspects of repository development. In 2014, a subgroup of the IGSC was formed – the Safety Case Communication Group – to address the challenge of communicating highly technical information to less technical stakeholder audiences. This report contains the results of the first phase of this group’s work, dealing with the questions: i) what is the experience base concerning the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of different tools for communicating safety case results or certain aspects of it to an interested non-technical audience, and ii) how can communication based on this experience be improved and included into a safety case development effort from the beginning? This report benefitted from a number of sources cited in the text and listed in the appendices. The IGSC also co-ordinates with the NEA Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC), another technical working group under the RWMC umbrella. The report complements the FSC report on Partnering for Long-term Management of Radioactive Waste: Evolution and Current Practice in Thirteen Countries (NEA, 2010), which outlines the importance of establishing true partnerships and communicating technical information interactively with a non-technical audience so as to ensure that understanding is achieved and learning is mutual. The present report examines how this goal may be reached through discussion of the practicalities involved in effectively and fairly communicating technical information to a non-technical audience. Members of the IGSC Safety Case Communication Group who prepared this report include Lucy Bailey (Radioactive Waste Management, United Kingdom), Frederik Bernier (Federal Agency for Nuclear Control [FANC], Belgium), Wilhelm Bollingerfehr (DBE Technology GmbH, Germany), Miguel Cunado (Enresa, Spain), Doug Ilett (Environment Agency, United Kingdom), Gloria Kwong (NEA), Ulrich Noseck (GRS, Germany), Klaus Röhlig (TU Clausthal, Germany), Abe van Luik (Department of Energy, United States), Jan Weber (Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, Germany) and Eef Weetjens (SCK•CEN, Belgium). The IGSC would like to acknowledge the helpful contribution of the FSC in reviewing the report. This report is dedicated to Dr Abraham Van Luik for his kindness and devotion, and for his tremendous support to the IGSC. COMMUNICATION ON THE SAFETY CASE FOR A DEEP GEOLOGICAL REPOSITORY, NEA No. 7336, © OECD 2017 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of contents List of abbreviations and acronyms ............................................................................................7 Chapter 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................9 Chapter 2. Stakeholder communication objectives and major messages .........................11 Telling a compelling story: The essence of successful communication ............................11 General principles and objectives ...........................................................................................12 Building technical understanding and capacity among stakeholders ...............................13 The awareness challenge and the avoidance of “surprises” ...............................................14 Dealing with divergent views among stakeholders, and with expert dissent ..................14 Dealing with general misgivings concerning the long-term safety of the proposed repository ....................................................................................................................................15 Tailoring the message to the expected/intended audience ................................................15 Chapter 3. General safety case communication aspects .......................................................17 General communication issues and the safety case definition of “stakeholders” and the “public” .........................................................................................................................17 General safety case aspects ......................................................................................................20 Specific safety case presentation aspects ..............................................................................22 Regulatory aspects .....................................................................................................................23 Materials and methods, tailored to purpose ..........................................................................24 Presentation/dialogue and behaviour .....................................................................................26 Materials and their distribution ...............................................................................................26 Chapter 4. Selected safety case topics with high relevance for communication