CARL: Stakeholder involvement in radioactive waste management decision making
CARL is an independent, self-supporting consortium of organisations from countries that have experience with stakeholder involvement in radioactive waste management.
The project unites four types of partners (Citizen stakeholders, Agencies responsible for radioactive waste management, social science Research organizations and Licensing and regulatory authorities) in four countries: Belgium, Slovenia, Sweden and the UK. The Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organisation and a Finnish researcher participated in the second phase of the project from February 2005 – January 2006.
CARL serves as a platform for:
• interaction and collaboration;
• the maintenance and development of networks for the exchange of experiences and ideas;
• stakeholder empowerment;
• comparative social science research and mutual learning.
CARL involves a comparative social science research project which focuses on stakeholder involvement in radioactive waste management (RWM) and the effects this generates on the decision-making process.
The research focuses primarily on three elements:
1. the relationship between the principles and practices that have characterized stakeholder involvement in RWM and their outcome;
2. the integration of such initiatives with technical programmes in RWM;
3. the influence of contextual (historical, social, political) factors on particular participatory initiatives and their outcome.
On the basis of the analysis of the research and the networking activities, the project will in a later stage develop practical guidance on the factors influencing organization and conduct of effective stakeholder involvement.
This will be done through the elaboration of a cross-national descriptive and evaluative framework. To this purpose, the research will aim specifically at examining the wider processes within which participatory initiatives take place and could be considered to succeed or fail.
Contact: Peter Simmons
Visit the dedicated CARL website at: http://www.carl-research.org/