Social Values, Individual Judgments and Acceptance

The Case of High-Level Radioactive Waste in Germany

authored by: Cord Drögemüller, Roman Seidl, Clemens Walther
Abstract: The sustainable final disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) remains an unresolved and highly controversially discussed issue, partly because of ecological, economic, and societal challenges and partly because of the risks the public associates with such disposal. Clearly, there will be little public acceptance of the project if citizens lack trust in responsible decision-makers and the site selection procedure. This endeavor will only be accepted if trust in the ongoing procedure is strengthened. We evaluated over 1800 comments from a German study (conducted in 2020) on the issue of final HLW disposal to answer the questions of how risk perceptions, trust, and acceptance are interrelated and what role other aspects, such as social values, play. By categorizing the comments, we obtained a different picture of opinions and identified the following needs circulating among the German population: the acceptance of a HLW repository or the site selection procedure depends particularly on the extent to which individual participants perceive the values of safety and fairness as fulfilled. When do they consider a repository safe, and when do they consider the procedure fair enough? The answers to these questions seem to depend strongly on the extent to which one’s own values are considered violated. The repository’s safety and the procedure’s fairness are essential. Moreover, instead on risks, respondents commented on safety. These concerns should be taken into account in the course of the site selection procedure to enable sustainable management and disposal of HLW.
Organisation(s): Centre for Radiation Protection and Radioecology
External Organisation(s): Justus Liebig University Giessen
Type: Article
Journal: Sustainability (Switzerland)
Volume: 17
ISSN: 2071-1050
Publication date: 11.06.2025
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Computer Science (miscellaneous), Geography, Planning and Development, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment, Environmental Science (miscellaneous), Energy Engineering and Power Technology, Hardware and Architecture, Computer Networks and Communications, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.3390/su17125373 (Access: Open)