NUCLEAR TRANSPARENCY WATCHPrevent and anticipate through transparency and participation

NTW: Working for Transparency and Public Participation in Radioactive Waste

Management

EESC – Brussels – 7 September 2015Philip Kearney

Nuclear Transparency Watch (NTW)– Established in 2013 after a founding meeting at the

European Parliament in Brussels.– Legal status - Association under French law

• Objectives– Promote transparency in nuclear issues and increase the

contribution of civil society in the governance of nuclear activities

– Raise awareness among policy makers and European society about transparency in nuclear issues

– Develop civil society expertise on nuclear safety at the local, national and European level

– Ensure full implementation of the Aarhus and Espoo Conventions’ provisions on public participation and related EU law

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Organisational structure of NTW (1)

• Members (15 organisations, 4 MEPs and 8 qualified members)

• Management board with executive committee (bureau)

• Office in Brussels with Head of Operations

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Organisational structure of NTW (2)

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Organisational structure of NTW (3)

Work on other issues

• Ageing of Nuclear Plants and Plant Lifetime Extensions (PLEX)

• Aarhus hotline (support for national cases)

• Decommissioning

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RWM Working Group

• Within the RWM working group a focus was put on issues regarding transparency (public information and participation or PIP). From this grew the ”NTW BEPPER project” which has produced what is tentatively called the ”NTW BEPPER framework” and the “NTW BEPPER findings of key components on effective PIP in RWM”. An NTW report to present this work is under development.

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Goals of the NTW BEPPER* project

* BEPPER = “Broad framework for Effective Public Participation in Environmental decision-making in Radioactive waste management”

•Establish enduring governance models providing resources to NGOs on the international, national and local level•Improve technical and legal capacities of NGO representatives participating in research projects•Promote the inclusion of Civil Society and NGOs as part of the RWM arena•Enable the development of a legal framework for effective public participation in RWM that takes into due account the input of NGOs•Involve Civil Society and NGOs as respected partners in international and European networks.

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The NTW BEPPER findings of key components on effective PIP in RWM

• Principles– Trust– Multi-generational perspective– Safety and risk– Energy policy

• Practices– Enhancing dialogue– Demystify and democratise – New decision-making processes – Horizontal as well as vertical information exchange– The importance of implementing access to justice

• Innovation in resources and quality assessment– Make sure that civil society has the resources to participate– Engage experienced and widely trusted facilitators– Libraries, compendia, websites of good practices, etc.– Quality assessment

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The NTW BEPPER framework for effective PIP in RWM

• Effective Access to Information• Effective Access to Public Participation • Effective Access to Justice• Effective Access to Resources

-- > BEPPER levels to be used for evaluation of PIP

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NTW Next Steps

• NTW is open to further supporting Commission work on examining member state compliance of Article 10 in the Radioactive Waste Directive.

• NTW sees that there is still need of an examination of the legal implementation of PIP in member states.

• NTW notes that there are parallel initiatives by the World Resources Institute to evaluate Aarhus Convention compliance

• NTW is also interested in facilitating discussion on effective PIP on in member states. One way to move forward would be national roundtables.

• NTW is already working on national roundtables in the field of Emergency Preparedness and Response (EP&R)

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Thank you for your attention!

NUCLEAR TRANSPARENCY WATCHPrevent and anticipate through transparency and participation