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Theme 1Affected communities and sustainable territorial development programme

encompassing Radioactive Waste Management

Affected Communities • What does this mean?

– A ‘community’ can be defined simply as a joining together of individuals to take (or regain) control of their future in the context of a sustainable future. How such a group comes together varies from place to place and situation to situation.

• Why is this important?– If there is to be meaningful local involvement, it is essential to be able to identify

WHO an implementer should talk to and HOW local people can become involved.

– A well-structured local process, based on democratic principles, can assist dialogue on a wide range of risk-related issues and develop a sense of ownership of local development and inspire confidence in the process.

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Theme 1Affected communities and sustainable territorial development programme

encompassing Radioactive Waste Management

• How can the MTF help?EIA criteria One of the proposed MTF studies will examine the

various definitions that have been used in different countries and different situations for development of Environmental Impact Assessments, and how these address the issue of representativeness.

A table will be produced listing the criteria used for definition of an affected community, discussing how these are used to ensure wide involvement in environmental consultations.

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Theme 1Affected communities and sustainable territorial development programme

encompassing Radioactive Waste Management

Compensation and support packages• What does this mean?

It is becoming common for communities to be offered compensation for allowing development of contentious facilities, and to receive support for taking part in the siting process and beyond.

Benefits can take several forms:• Financial (lump sums; payments in lieu of taxes)

• Social (infrastructure, local hiring, property value protection)

• Empowerment (support for oversight groups, involvement in long term monitoring etc)

• Why is this important? Communities in Slovenia are being approached about siting a LLW repository; Although

a legally-defined compensation system exists in Slovenia, communities should be aware of international practice so that they can take a full and informed part in the discussions and understand how the issue is treated elsewhere.

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Theme 1Affected communities and sustainable territorial development programme

encompassing Radioactive Waste Management

• How can the MTF help?1. The use of community benefits in other areas of activity

• A series of bullet points will be developed illustrating the use of community benefits in areas beyond radioactive waste management. These may include such things as siting of wind farms, incinerators, research facilities (ITER) etc.

2. Success or otherwise of legalistic compensation schemes• This will examine other examples of where compensation schemes have

been enshrined in law, and assess whether the approach was successful or not in encouraging participation as compared to other systems. The output of this study will take the form of either a bulleted summary or a comparative table, depending on the availability of information.