The expert conference on sub-areas marked the starting point for public involvement in the search for a final repository site for high-level radioactive waste in Germany, as required by law. To assess this format, BASE commissioned a concomitant evaluation. The aim was to learn more about the implementation and further development of formats as well as suitable evaluation tools. Nexus Institut für Kooperationsmanagement und interdisziplinäre Forschung GmbH Berlin was commissioned to draw up a final report based on the participants’ perceptions and assessments. This report is now available and more than 100 pages strong.

On the whole, the report’s balance is positive. Thanks to a new, autonomous operation method, the format did not just achieve the goals of the expert conference, namely to discuss the interim report on sub-areas published by the Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung (BGE mbh), it also managed to document the results of the consultation, and to communicate them to the project implementer. According to the report, the expert conference had promoted both the technical discussion among the general public and the willingness to participate in the site search at an early stage of the procedure. After the third and final consultation of the conference, 90 % of the participants expressed an interest to be involved in future participation formats regarding the repository search.

According to the report, the main purpose of the conference was to collect information. The participants were motivated by personal and professional interests. Many considered it their social responsibility to participate in the process. Almost half of the respondents stated that the expert conference had informed them well about the interim report.

Complexity of the search process is a challenge

Yet, the survey also shows that the complexity of the search process posed a challenge for some of the respondents. Therefore, all actors involved will need to continue explaining the further steps of the procedure to different target groups, thus laying the foundation for a professional discussion across different participation formats. In its assessment of the final report, BASE presents a detailed discussion of the evaluation results.

Significance of the evaluation

The evaluation was based on over 700 completed standardised questionnaires as well as qualitative interviews with participants. No statement can be made regarding the representativeness of the evaluation, as there is no comparative data on the basic population of conference participants (e.g. with regard to gender, age composition and membership of participant groups).

BASE will continue to conduct evaluations as an integral part of its public consultation work, and establish them as an important tool in the learning process. Yet, the evaluation has shown that not all research questions could be answered in a satisfactory manner, and the validity of results was limited in some cases. Therefore, in order to obtain results that are better validated and useable for future formats, BASE intends to optimise its tools for evaluation and assessment based on the experience gained.