The Core Agenda of Public Debate on the Cigéo Project in France

Nuclear power generation has been the cornerstone of economic growth due to low generation costs in Korea, but the disposal of radioactive waste continues to be controversial. Looking back on the controversy at the time of the establishment of low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities, it is expected that the establishment of high-level radioactive waste disposal facilities will lead to enormous social conflicts, urgently seeking social consensus. In this study, we examined the process of establishing the policy and public debate on the installation of Cigeo, a high-level radioactive waste disposal facility in France. In addition, through SNA (semantic network analysis), we identified several key agenda items which had been presented during the installation process, including debate, business, waste, storage, public, question, danger, citizen, participation, and site. Based on the case of Cigeo, we suggested several policy implications that it is necessary to promote participation and discussion of various policy actors and to consider intergenerational equity as well as preemptive legal action.