ITAS is a member of ENTRIA, which is a research platform dealing with the final disposal of nuclear waste [01.08.2013]

The dispute on questions of nuclear waste disposal in Germany is not only determined by the political parties' different perspectives and the conflict between the anti-nuclear movement and official politics. It is also characterized by the dissent among experts regarding some fundamental questions of nuclear waste disposal. Especially for high-level radioactive waste it is striking that there are still considerable gaps in the location-independent interdisciplinary research. Here ENTRIA joins in, a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in which ITAS is responsible for one of the central non-technical modules. The project started in January this year and runs until the end of 2017.

ENTRIA is an acronym and stands for the German equivalent of "Disposal options for radioactive waste. Interdisciplinary analyses and development of a criteria-based preliminary evaluation of the main options." The project is designed as "research platform", which means that apart from original research the dialog with and information for the interested public are of particular importance. Basically the three options "maintenance-free deep geological disposal", "deep geological disposal with retrievability" and "near-surface disposal" are interdisciplinarily analyzed, including their advantages and disadvantages.

ITAS has the sole responsibility for the work package "Governance between science and public protest" and is in charge of the research on "Technology assessment and governance" which comprises several interdisciplinary work packages. Apart from core aspects of new nuclear governance, this includes on the one hand issues of modern knowledge policy and decision-making subject to different conflict structures and blockages in decision-making. On the other hand, also the realization of these developments with respect to modern-day management and administration is discussed. In this context, the discussion about "side-effects" is especially significant.

Questions of international comparison are in the center of a co-operation with the Environmental Policy Research Centre of the FU Berlin.

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