What they don't know can hurt us

''A public information campaign to support a proposed national deep repository for low and intermediate level radioactive waste'' is the title of a research and development project funded by the Commission of the European Communities, DG 12. The primary objective of the project is to gain support in Cumbria (UK) for a radioactive waste repository at Sellafield through the dissemination of factual information in various forms accessible to the public. The repository information effort is a joint project of UK Nirex and BNFL. Data collection in survey and interview form will enable changes in support to be measured. Dr Peter Allen of Robens Institute, Surrey, carried out a first wave of local opinion research in June 1992. The present author carried out analysis of this data in comparison with French data, comparison reported below. A second objective is to generate information suitable for detailed consideration by other European Community Member States, through evaluation of the fit between public information needs, and strategies and methods applied by institutions in the United Kingdom and in France. The present researcher is primarily concerned with this second objective. The initiation of an information campaign in the nuclear field, as an example of risk communication, provides a favorable opportunity to examine and evaluate the presuppositions guiding institutional action. (author)