Albert Presas,
Professor of the Humanities Department of the UPF

Nuclear energy continues to weigh on the political agenda. Even in an era of growing acceptance of nuclear power as some kind of green technology, discussions about its prospects are often dead ends. The rekindled debate over the future and sustainability of nuclear energy seventy years after its promising beginnings indicates that uncertainties and disagreements regarding its future remain, especially in Europe, and that they are shaped as much by social and political factors as by technical ones. Today’s debate is in line with a historical constant, namely, that the main reason for this appears to be the technocratic approaches of the proponents of nuclear power and a denial of public access to the policy process, although in recent years civil society stakeholders have assumed more rights, which seem to set the limits of the debate.

Public engagement on the issue of nuclear energy has taken various forms, with very different outcomes depending on a variety of societal and political factors. The idea of a “best practice” to be applied when seeking to improve the relationship between society and the development of nuclear programmes is problematic and should be replaced with context-sensitive, theoretically and empirically informed policy recommendations. Systematic studies show that robust public engagement and independent regulatory institutions are manifestly crucial to cope with future nuclear challenges (and, by extension, other technical options). Such trust is highly conditioned by each nation’s political culture and traditions of public engagement. Historical experience suggests that, at least in the medium to long term, greater public participation is likely to be vital to the consideration of nuclear power as an energy option.

Societies have engaged with nuclear energy in a variety of ways and forms. Trust in nuclear power is greater in countries with more open and transparent approaches to technology-associated decision-making. Discussions and controversies over nuclear energy have typically been embedded in a broader range of societal and political debates on a local, national and international scale, such as those concerning democracy, the role of experts, vested interests, local livelihoods, and the tension between the rural and urban worlds. However, building trust and enhancing the social robustness, legitimacy and technical quality of decisions requires acceptance and, sometimes, even nurturing a healthy mistrust. Given that the Achilles heel of nuclear energy has largely been its relationship with civil society, the key element to understanding its development and the current critical situation in most European countries, regardless of the technical and financial aspects, must be sought in overcoming the mistrust between the nuclear industry, the state institutions that seem to support it, and one of the most crucial actors in modern societies, namely, the civil society to which nuclear energy has promised perennial prosperity and safety.