The role of the decision maker. Whoever that might be. Experiences from the siting process for a spent nuclear fuel repository in Sweden

It is common knowledge that there are great difficulties in convincing the general public and their elected representatives that final disposal of spent nuclear fuel can be made in a safe way. The implicit goal of constructing a final repository for spent nuclear fuel is obviously to avoid a complex radiological situation in the foreseeable future. However, such a repository represents a 'complex radiological situation' in the sense that the problems to be handled are those that concern people today, although they will most certainly not appear until in the far future. Special problems for the decision-makers are created by the demands to make a responsible risk assessment in an area with genuine uncertainties and characterised by many expressions of lack of confidence in social institutions. (R.P.)