Make it Our Shared Wicked Problems! The "Pathways Evolution Process" Serious Game as Challenger for RWM strategies

While STS scholars generally point out that radioactive waste management (RWM) is a sociotechnical issue, in practice the social and technical aspects are still treated separately. European nuclear regulatory bodies and their technical support organizations (SITEX network) are aware of this issue and are looking for innovative ways to address it. Recently, they created the “Pathways Evolution Process (PEP) Serious Game” dedicated to RWM. With the support of social experts, this foresight game initially aims at challenging RWM strategies and fostering interactions with civil society (SITEX project, 2021). Concretely, PEP Serious Game creates and imposes shared wicked problems that participants must solve together within a specific timeframe.
Based on document analysis, semi-structured interviews, participatory observations and ethnographic fieldnotes, this presentation compares two recent national experiences of the Pep Serious Game applied to RWM in France (2019) and Belgium (2021). Both participatory exercises were designed to target young participants with multidisciplinary background and were jointly organized by technical and social experts, with the support of French and Belgian nuclear regulatory bodies and their technical support organizations.
Our results highlight how this tool creates, perpetuates or temporarily challenges relationships between technical and social experts (from universities and relevant public administrations) and stakeholders of the future generation. A central question we ask is: what if playing seriously was a way to collectively challenge nuclear waste policies?