Public Participation and Regional Development at a Nuclear Waste Disposal Site

One of the conditions for citizens to actively participate in the search for a final repository for radioactive waste is public involvement and the preparation of perspectives for a long-term development of those regions which are geologically eligible for a nuclear waste disposal site. Regional development is an integral part of public participation and ranking second, after safety factors, as the essential field of interest for the local residents of a region chosen for a potential disposal site. Therefore, this presentation will start with the discussion of those considerations referring to theoretical and empirical principles of public participation in long-long-term and high-risk projects. In a second step, the principles of public participation will be outlined. Afterwards, I will focus on the significance of the region as living space for people before I put up for discussion a few thoughts on regional development. The question why the public should be involved actively and intensively in the search for a permanent disposal site, can be answered easily. So far all attempts, not only in Germany, but in most countries where the search for a disposal site is on, have failed due to resistance by the civilian population. Behind this pragmatic reasoning, however, there is a complex societal process which should be understood in order to be able to classify the individual elements of 'active and intensive participation'. In the last decades, a rather informal and situational form of democratic decision making and realization of interests has evolved alongside of the representative and formalized democracy. On one side, the institutionalized and formalized democratic structure is at work: the system of parliaments and government, of independent jurisdiction and mediatory organizations such as trade unions, associations and lobbyists who communicate their specific interests to the decision-making process