Perceptions of justice influencing community acceptance of spent nuclear fuel disposal. A case study in two Finnish nuclear communities

Abstract

Final disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from nuclear power plants (NPPs) is an ethical issue with implications within and across generations. We address this issue from the perspective of nuclear communities that host nuclear waste disposal sites. These are primarily the communities that face injustice due to the potential radiological risks. A resident survey (n ¼ 454) was conducted in two Finnish nuclear communities, i.e. Eurajoki and Pyh€ ajoki, that are being considered as alternative sites for a second repository for SNF. The nuclear waste management (NWM) company Posiva is already building a repository in Eurajoki, the first in Finland. These communities are in different stages of their lifecycles as nuclear communities. We investigated the residents' conceptions of justice and trust regarding the repository SNF management and its main actors, and how these conceptions related to acceptance of the repository. The main findings show that residents of both communities perceived intragenerational and intergenerational injustices to be important in the procedures and the distribution of risks and benefits of the proposed repository. Claims regarding justice and trust were related to the acceptance of the repository. The community with the longer history with NWM expressed greater mistrust and perceived greater procedural injustice than the community with less earlier experience, whichin turnexpressed more concern over intragenerational distributive justice than the former community. Moreover, having longer history with NWM did not lead to a different understanding regarding responsibility toward future generations as resident's in both communities expressed similar concern over intergenerational justice. Moreover, having more experience of NWM did not enhance local acceptance. We emphasize that these results should be understood in the light of the prevailing situation in Finland, where the planning of the second repository is at a very early stage.

Multinational Energy Justice for Managing Multinational Risks: A Case Study of Nuclear Waste Repositories

“…We see multinational energy justice primarily as a strategically impactful spatial development, yet it also has implications for how we think of energy justice temporally . The latter is significant not only because there are important distributive impacts of energy decisions that will manifest over (short‐ and long‐term) time frames, but also because spatial injustices could easily be perpetuated temporally; for example, the siting of disposal places for nuclear waste that create spatial injustices among the present generations will continue to create some kind of spatial injustice emanating from nuclear risk for future people living close to those sites (e.g., Vilhunen, Kojo, Litmanen, & Taebi, ).…”

Healthy mistrust or complacent confidence? Civic vigilance in the reporting by leading newspapers on nuclear waste disposal in Finland and France

“…In Finland, such ambivalence is virtually absent, nuclear operators being portrayed as vital players in the national export‐oriented industrial policy (Teräväinen, 2014, p. 313; Teräväinen et al, 2011). Opinion surveys show high trust among citizens in the nuclear‐sector institutions, especially the safety authority, but also in the operators (e.g., Kojo et al, 2012; Vilhunen et al, 2019), and relatively little public skepticism towards nuclear energy (Finnish Energy, 2019).…”

“…However, this image crumbled as Posiva rejected Fennovoima's plan to dispose of its waste at Olkiluoto. Despite political pressure, Posiva did not give in, and Fennovoima had to start searching for a site for its own repository in 2016 (Kojo & Oksa, 2014; Vilhunen et al, 2019). The companies do collaborate, however, as Posiva's subsidiary, Posiva Solutions, delivers expert services to Fennovoima.…”

“…This culture is paralleled and underpinned by exceptionally strong trust among Finns in key RWM actors, and mild local and national opposition against the project. As many as 82% of Finns, locally and nationally, trust in STUK as a source of information (Kojo et al, 2012; Vilhunen et al, 2019). Currently, Eurajoki has a nearly symbiotic relationship with the nuclear companies essential for its prosperity and has been willing to fully delegate risk‐related analysis to the safety authority (Kari et al, 2021; Litmanen et al, 2017).…”

Trust, mistrust and distrust as blind spots of Social Licence to Operate: illustration via three forerunner countries in nuclear waste management

“…The article draws primarily on existing academic literature on SLO and on NWM in our three case study countries. The secondary NWM literature, which served as the core material for the illustrative case studies, included also our own earlier extensive work concerning the nuclear sector in Finland, France and Sweden, on SLO-related topics such as repository site selection, local community perceptions, and the role of the host municipality (Kojo 2009;Vilhunen et al 2019;Kari, Kojo, and Lehtonen 2021); community benefit schemes (Kojo and Richardson 2014;Lehtonen and Kojo 2019); socioeconomics of NWM (Lehtonen 2014(Lehtonen , 2016Lehtonen et al 2017); citizen participation and deliberation; as well as politics and regulation of nuclear energy and NWM (Lehtonen 2015(Lehtonen , 2018Litmanen et al 2017a). Data from opinion surveys provided additional insights especially concerning levels of trust.…”