National Specificities in “Safetization”: Decision-Making on Nuclear Waste Management in Finland and France

• In Event: Good Governance, Good Relations and (Nuclear) Waste Management II

Abstract

While both are seen as forerunners in final disposal of nuclear waste, Finland and France display striking differences in terms of the ways in which safety of the repository projects is discussed in public and policy. By analysing selected key parliamentary debates on the final disposal of nuclear waste, this paper examines how Finnish and French parliamentarians frame, politicize and depoliticize safety.

The paper adopts as the central concept “safetization” in decision-making on nuclear waste management. Safetization refers here to a process whereby 1) images of risks and uncertainties are either created or explained away to give assurance of safety, and 2) current practices are normalized or various changes to current practices are demanded in order to ensure safety. Safetization can hence either support or challenge the prevailing views of safety, i.e., either reinforce trust and confidence, or open up the debate in order to generate more robust understandings on the issue. “Safetization” redistributes political power between key actor groups such as implementers, regulators, and politicians.

We illustrate how power is exercised via safetization and de-safetization in public and policy debate on nuclear waste, in ways similar to the politicization and de-politicization processes in energy policy more generally. Alongside topics such as energy security and climate change mitigation, safetization deserves a place on energy governance agenda. For STS, safetization provides a concept for analysing the subtle power play that conditions the “good relations” amongst societal groups seeking to get to grips with nuclear waste governance.

Authors

• Markku Lehtonen, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

• Matti Kojo, University of Tampere

• Mika Kari, Tampere University

• Tapio Armas Litmanen, University of Jyväskylä