Chances, Challenges and Choices of Participation in Siting a Nuclear Waste Repository

In this chapter, we analyse the impact of selected historical, political and social contexts on the institutional design of the emerging participatory governance system of the German site selection process. In doing so, we outline in a first step selected historical circumstances, which the mandated governmental Commission for the Disposal of High-Level-Waste had to face when developing a proposal for a participatory site selection process. These main challenges are: 1) the historical conflict between the state and the anti-nuclear movement, 2) deadlocks within the German political system when it comes to contested and unpopular decisions, and 3) the unfair and unequal distribution of burdens, risks and benefits related to the site of the nuclear waste. In a second step, we describe the participatory governance system in more detail, specifying crucial dimensions of the model as both an institutional expression and reaction to the mentioned challenges. Thus, we identify and depict selected relations between the challenges faced and the current design of the system.