'Hot particles' in the cold light of day: principles for a stakeholder and public engagement architecture relating to historic liabilities in the marine environment.
This paper discusses issues in stakeholder relations, focusing on the challenges of liabilities management associated with small fragments of irradiated nuclear fuel hereafter termed particles (and sometimes termed 'hot particles' in the public domain, from which this paper gets its title), produced over a number of decades from now ceased operations at Dounreay. It describes key problems confronting the nuclear industry in developing a stakeholder-relations strategy. Drawing upon examples of the stakeholder activity at Dounreay, and using an ecological metaphor, an innovative architecture for stakeholder engagement relating to nuclear issues is outlined. This is based upon the view that the solution of the stakeholder issue must reflect the complexity and connectivity of influences and interests within the stakeholder environment. It is argued that the lay public should be visualised as the stakeholder if an effective stakeholder-relations strategy is to be achieved. The importance of creating trust in a context of scientific uncertainty is highlighted. This will, it is argued, become an increasingly salient issue in the thrust for openness and transparency, two key drivers of nuclear industry public and stakeholder relations, which could make the limits of scientific knowledge and control more widely appreciated, and bring to the fore the role of lay conceptions of perceived risk.
Wylie
Rick
R
Department of Environmental Sciences, Westlakes Scientific Consulting, Princess Royal Building, Westlakes Science and Technology Park, Moor Row, Cumbria CA24 3LN, UK.
D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D009688:Nuclear Reactors; D011210:Power Plants; D011639:Public Opinion; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000379:methods*; D011850:Radioactive Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D012306:Risk; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012449:Safety; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D006113:United Kingdom; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*
D011850:Radioactive Waste; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive