Institutions and Engagement

1. CARL Workshop Antwerp Institutions and Engagement What is the role of institutions (RWM agencies, regulators, etc.)? Should they play a purely technical role, or engage themselves also in social implications of RWM? Context Discussion • What general expectations do stakeholders have concerning the role of a RWM agency or regulator? How do these institutions perceive their own role? • Should these institutions managethe social and ethical implications of RWM themselves or should they delegate responsibility for these to other people or organisations? • Or should RWM agencies primarily be concerned with social aspects? If so, who should manage the technical aspects? • Should there be a full integration of the social and technical aspects? Are these RWM institutions capable of incorporating the social aspects in a reliable way? If required, how should they change in order to incorporate social aspects in a reliable way? • Can one expect RWM agencies be totally independent from radwaste producers. Is this important? Or is it more crucial for the regulators to act fully independent? • Who could or should act as defender of the ‘public interest’: the agencies, the regulators, the governments, the citizen-stakeholders, environmental organisations? • What role could for instance an independent mediator play? And what kind of person/organisation could take up such a role? • In what way do international regulations influence the role of the institutions? Should this be enforced for instance by international institutions such as the IAEA or the EU? Or is this in the first instance a national matter? • What could be expected from international institutions such as the IAEA, the NEA or the EU concerning stakeholder engagement and integrating social and technical aspects of RWM? November 30 – December 1, 2005