Dealing with real-life laboratories in energy research : the power of the experimenter

Following the theoretical approach developed by Herbold (1995), Gross and Krohn (2005), and Van de Poel et al. (2017), this paper focuses on an on-going social experiment that remains a sensitive challenge for the future of nuclear energy research: the radioactive waste management. More specifically, this paper scrutinizes and compares the attitude of three nuclear waste management organizations (considered here as the experimenter) during the on-going implementation of high-tech waste disposal. Based on 82 semi-directive interviews conducted in Belgium, in France and in Canada, this paper intends to empirically highlight how the experimenter bound to participate in complex networks and unable to completely control the experimental process develops two different attitudes (“open” or “closed” experimental mindset). We sustain that those attitudes produce different public engagements (empowerment or resistance). Particularly, the initiator of the social experiment should adopt an “open” experimental attitude regarding his multiple audiences in order to sustainably deal with uncertainties of decision-making processes related to nuclear energy issues and more globally, energy transition ones.

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Herbold, Ralf. “Technologies as Social Experiments. The Construction and Implementation of High-Tech Waste Disposal Site.” In Managing Technology in Society. The Approach of Constructive Technology Assessment, edited by Arie Rip, J. Thomas Misa, and Johan Schot, 361. London and New York: Pinter, 1995.
Poel, Ibo van de, Lotte Asveld, and Donna C. Mehos. New Perspectives on Technology in Society: Experimentation Beyond the Laboratory. Routledge, 2017.