European Observatory for long-term governance on radioactive waste management: About OBRA

BACKGROUND

Continuing societal concerns limit the application of deep geological disposal in many countries. Wider societal involvement at a variety of governance levels in an open, inclusive and transparent manner is a top-level concern in all European and national organisations involved in radioactive waste management.

Local and regional communities lack access to an authoritative yet independent platform of experts to address their concerns and information needs in a systematic way and which could provide them with the sufficient knowledge base as to be able to take sound decisions concerning the long-term.

The OBRA project will assess the feasibility of creating an Observatory for long-term governance on radioactive waste management in Europe. OBRA will contribute to the better governance of radioactive waste by setting the basis for providing mechanisms for all stakeholders to have access to the knowledge that has been generated by successive EU research programmes both in scientific and social sciences fields.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The main objective of this project is to promote a new approach to the governance of spent fuel and long-lived radioactive wastes by bringing together a multidisciplinary network of radioactive waste management agencies, concerned stakeholders and the academic research community, in order to assess the feasibility of a European Observatory for long-term governance on radioactive waste management.

The OBRA project addresses the following objectives:

To establish a European networking platform designed to facilitate the development of a common information and knowledge base for providing stakeholders with access to independent expertise and training packages regarding spent nuclear fuel and long-lived radioactive waste;

To develop a model for an Observatory for long-term governance which ensures an effective and systematic means for regional and local communities to address their information needs and concerns. This will require the definition of the mission, scope and strategy of such an observatory;

To facilitate the networking between universities with support of national waste management agencies to combine technical and social science on radioactive waste management;
To test the efficiency of a pilot training package as a mechanism for the transfer and dissemination of knowledge to local and regional stakeholders with regard to the management and disposal of spent nuclear fuel and long-lived radioactive waste;
To make recommendations on how the model of the Observatory could be implemented.