"Baptists and Bootleggers, Once Removed": The Politics of Radioactive Waste Internalization in the European Union

Robert Darst and Jane I. Dawson
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Robert Darst: Robert Darst is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. His current research interests include the transnational politics of hazardous waste disposal and the adoption of carbon neutrality programs.
Jane I. Dawson: Jane I. Dawson is Virginia E. Weinmann Associate Professor of Government and Environmental Studies at Connecticut College. Her research focuses on issues of nuclear power and waste disposal in industrialized societies, with emphasis on social movements, politics, and of environmental justice. She is also currently involved in the implementation of the President's Commitment on Climate Change at Connecticut College and very interested in learning about similar efforts underway at other institutions.

Global Environmental Politics, 2008, vol. 8, issue 2, 17-38

Abstract: This article examines the emergence of an unusual coalition of opponents and proponents of nuclear power, united in their insistence that the EU's high-level radioactive waste (HLW) be disposed of within the EU, and in their opposition to the export of HLW beyond the EU. We argue that this odd coalition is best understood by considering the waste disposal issue within the context of the industry's entire production chain. The activist-industry consensus represents a coalition of "baptists and bootleggers, once removed" brought together not by opposition to HLW exports per se, but rather by the intersection of the issue of radioactive waste disposal with that of nuclear power generation. For quite different reasons, both partners believe that internalizing the EU's radioactive waste is more likely than export to advance their respective goals, be it the expansion or elimination of nuclear power. (c) 2008 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Date: 2008
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