Environmental Impact Assessment as a Social Process: The Case of Nuclear Waste Storage in Sweden

The process underlying the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for large developments is often designed to allow opportunities for members of the public and NGOs to voice their opinions. This study describes the EIA process leading to a decision in the question of radioactive waste storage in Sweden. While it should be possible for a deciding authority to reject an EIA on the basis of non-involvement of the public or NGOs, this study illustrates the way in which the EIA process may be formed by different social norms that relate to the specific case. Authorities can be considered to represent a plan paradigm (by which the project itself as well as political decisions made about it are in focus), whereas many environmental organizations traditionally represent an environment paradigm, focusing on the risk of potentially ecologically harmful processes. These differences can also be seen as symptomatic of the inclusion of parts of an environment paradigm in legislation such as the Swedish Environmental Code.