The Temporary Nature of Societal Risk Evaluation: Understanding the Finnish Nuclear Decisions

Litmanen, Tapio

doi:10.1057/9780230237032_7

Cited by 13 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The nuclear reactors produce all together about 25% of the electricity used in Finland (on the nuclear history of Finland, see Vehmas 2009 and, Kojo andLitmanen 2009). If the government and parliament decide that the granted decision-in-principle is valid, Fennovoima can carry on with the nuclear power plant project as planned.…”

Section: Nuclear Energy Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nuclear Waste Governance

Brunnengräber¹,

Nucci²,

Losada³

et al. 2015

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Section: Nuclear Energy Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nuclear Waste Governance

Brunnengräber¹,

Nucci²,

Losada³

et al. 2015

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“…Nationally, the nuclear industry has been active in the construction of "a pronuclear political network" (Litmanen, 2009, p. 200). The Finnish nuclear industry has actively lobbied for nuclear power and fed information to journalists (Litmanen, 2009). …”

Section: Final Disposal Of Spent Nuclear Fuel In the Onkalo Repositorymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social Construction of Nuclear Community

Hänninen

Yli-Kauhaluoma

2014

Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society

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ONKALO, the world's first repository for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel, is being constructed in Eurajoki, Finland. We study how the constructor of this facility portrays it to the local community in order to influence lay understanding of the disposal risk, build trust, and gain public approval for the construction project. The study is based on a framing analysis of the newsletters published by the constructor of the facility in 2000-2014. The results suggest that the nuclear industry has developed increasing understanding of the social and communal aspects of public resistance to nuclear power. To create trust and to increase acceptance locally the industry is socially constructing a nuclear community around the repository. The gap between the nuclear experts and the local residents is narrowed and the repository is portrayed as being a shared project within the local community advancing the common interests of the industry and the residents. This may represent a new trend in pronuclear storytelling.

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“…Earlier analysis of energy policy in general and nuclear sector in particular suggests that technocratic dominance may in these domains well be a rule rather than an exception in many countries (e.g. Lehtonen, 2010;Litmanen, 2009;Topçu, 2010).…”

Section: Energy Sector Specificitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The non-use and influence of UK Energy Sector Indicators

Lehtonen¹

2013

Ecological Indicators

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This paper presents the results from a case study on the role in policymaking of UK Energy Sector Indicators (ESIs), introduced by the government in 2003. The findings show that the ESIs constituted a very minor element within the broader evidence-base used by policymakers, and that this indicator set and their objectives were poorly known even to central players in the sector. The findings of this research provide further evidence for the observation that scientific knowledge (including evaluations, assessments and indicators) seldom play an instrumental role in policymaking, and are more likely to produce indirect, conceptual and political impacts. The analysis provides a number of tentative conclusions concerning such potential indirect impacts that accrue mainly through processes of dialogue and argumentation both during the preparation of the indicators and after their publication as part of the annual reporting by the UK energy department. The ESIs have played various conceptual and political roles, yet the concrete outcomes in terms of policy change remain to be explored. The conclusions highlight the limitations of rationalist notions of direct, instrumental use in the efforts to understand the role of indicators in policymaking. The paper concludes by three tentative propositions concerning the explanations to the absence of instrumental role of the ESIs, which could be usefully explored in future research: the characteristics of the energy sector; the characteristics of the UK policy culture; and the exceptionality of the ESIs in the general evidence-base of UK energy sector.

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The Temporary Nature of Societal Risk Evaluation: Understanding the Finnish Nuclear Decisions

Cited by 13 publications

References 10 publications

Nuclear Waste Governance

Nuclear Waste Governance

The Social Construction of Nuclear Community

The non-use and influence of UK Energy Sector Indicators

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