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Short abstract:

This presentation shares insights from a multi-year research and redesign project emerging from collaboration between colleagues in STS, nuclear engineering, and beyond the academy. Liquid sodium reactors are investigated for the potential to disrupt predictable debates and reframe challenges.

Long abstract:

This presentation draws together investigations of transdisciplinarity and community engagement in a U.S. Department of Energy-funded project called “Collaborative Paradigm for Engagement.” The co-authors, a faculty member in Science and Technologies Studies (STS) and a Nuclear Engineering professor, reflect on their work to leverage Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) and STS perspectives to build a Toolkit for Community Engagement. This Toolkit will inform the U.S. government’s approach to “Consent-Based Siting” of one or more consolidated interim storage facilities for commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF). Unique among the consortia funded to improve this process, the team behind this presentation is investigating how a facility could repurpose the SNF. The proposed facility is needed to mature demonstrated nuclear technologies beyond the legacy light-water fleet, most notably liquid-sodium-based reactors, in a way that could reduce uranium mining and support diverse community interests. Rather than assume light-water reactor technology is the best option available, we argue that the public was never able to participate in nuclear technology development or evaluation, and that dialogue around the potential benefits and risks of liquid sodium reactor technology is long overdue. The “collaborative paradigm” disrupts sorting of tasks and topics into “social” and “technical” categories and seeks opportunities for meaningful engagement with community partners. Mutual learning, including both the “content” of NSE fundamentals and the context – historical, economic, legal, etc. – of NSE development is at the core of the project. Social scientists, NSE experts, and community partners all are recognized for contributing necessary knowledge, values, and experiences, while differences among the partners’ needs, capacity, and power are continually grappled with. Ultimately, the project aims to create new contexts for engagement that go beyond predictable and perpetual debates and invest in building relationships that could lead to emergent possibilities and innovative transdisciplinary and community-engaged solutions.