Decision making on nuclear waste in the local community. Three northern communities

The main objective of the project is to examine how citizens, politicians, and other actors in the three Swedish municipalities of Storuman, Malaa and Oeverkalix reacted politically on the idea that the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co was to perform a pre-study in the municipality with the purpose of producing a safer basis for decision so as to later on be able to decide if the company should proceed with examinations and possibly build a repository for spent nuclear fuel there. As a second objective we would like to examine the spent nuclear fuel issue as a public policy problem. This is done by applying the theory of collective goods on the disposal issue. The third objective is to develop the democratic and scientific dimensions of the nuclear waste problem. Should the issue be determined at the national, county or local level? Should the question about a geographic and geologic place for the disposal be determined by research, and how should the balance between research and democracy be effected?