A dialogue which is too “top down”?

In its conclusions, the Spiral report warns ONDRAF against a top-down approach to consultation with the public. It reveals that “the recent experiments of ONDRAF have demonstrated the difficulty of mobilizing the participation of citizens if the consultation process is based on marginal questions relating to the problem, or organized into an inefficient logical sequence (too late, for example)”. However, even though no decision has yet been taken by the government, ONDRAF has chosen to limit the consultation options by suggesting the landfill option. This is perhaps a way of closing a half-open door, even though the comments from the public have encouraged ONDRAF to adopt a “reversible” approach to its proposal for geological disposal (B and C category nuclear waste can be removed from the installation where it is kept, for example, if scientific progress offers possibilities for more efficient treatment).

The SPIRAL report also analyzes a significant difference in the way the question of nuclear waste is dealt with by the French and Dutch media, particularly after the screening of a press conference by Greenpeace in August 2010 which identified 22 communities that are likely to receive nuclear waste landfill. All of these communes are located in the Flanders region. “The French-speaking media has continued to place the debate in a global context and to analyse the different options possible for nuclear waste management (landfill, overground storage ...). In Flanders, the press has taken the view that geological disposal of the waste is the preferred solution. It has focused on the public’s main preoccupation: are the 22 communes and their populations for or against the disposal of nuclear waste below their feet? The Dutch press and Greenpeace have ignored a stage in the decision-making process as the suggestion by ONDRAF to choose the geological disposal option has not yet been sanctioned by the government, and even if it is chosen one day, ONDRAF maintains that no potential site has yet been identified “, explains Céline Parotte.