Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea

275 Pages·2000·1 MB·English

by  Lasse Ringius

Ringius.Radioactive Waste/FINAL 9/17/05 2:17 PM Page 1
Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea R
Public Ideas, Transnational Policy Entrepreneurs, and Environmental Regimes a Radioactive Waste
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Lasse Ringius
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Most studies of environmental regimes focus on the use of power, the pursuit of rational self-interest, c
and the influence of scientific knowledge. This book focuses instead on the influence of public ti Disposal at Sea
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ideas and policy entrepreneurs. It shows how transnational coalitions of policy entrepreneurs can build
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environmental regimes and how global environmental nongovernmental organizations can act as
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catalysts for regime change.
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In this first book-length empirical study of the formation of the global ocean dumping regime s
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in 1972and its subsequent development, which culminated in the 1993global ban on the dumping e
of low-level radioactive waste at sea, Lasse Ringius describes the structure within which global ocean D Public Ideas,Transnational
dumping policy, particularly policy with regard to the disposal of radioactive waste, is embedded.
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He also examines the political construction of ocean dumping as a global environmental problem, the sp Policy Entrepreneurs, and
role of persuasion and communication in an international setting, and the formation of international o
s Environmental Regimes
public opinion. He argues not that the influence of ideas alone explains how regimes develop but rather a
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that it is necessary to understand how actors, interests, and ideas together influence regimes and
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international environmental policy. t

Lasse Ringius is Senior Researcher at the United Nations Environment Programme’s Collaborating S
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Centre on Energy and Environment in Roskilde, Denmark. a
“This careful analysis of the creation of the global ocean dumping regime in 1972and its transformation
in 1993to include a ban on the disposal at sea of radioactive waste persuasively demonstrates the
importance of public ideas, transnational coalitions of policy entrepreneurs, and environmental non-
governmental organizations. The analysis contains important insights for international environmental
policy. Forceful ideas and people and committed NGOs can make a difference.” — Harold K.Jacobson,
Jesse Siddal Reeves Professor of Political Science, Senior Research Scientist, and Visiting Professor of
Law, University of Michigan R
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“This book makes a significant contribution by showing that, under certain circumstances, regimes can n
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be created and changed by a combination of powerful but highly oversimplified ‘public ideas’ and
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transnational political entrepreneurs. The work is original and the scholarship is sound beyond any u
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question.” — Edward L.Miles, Virginia and Prentice Bloedel Professor of Marine Studies and Public
Affairs, University of Washington
“In telling the story of how an environmental organization initiated a regime for regulating radioactive
waste disposal that went against both scientific consensus and the interests of powerful states and yet
ultimately triumphed, this book challenges important conventional wisdom about how international
environmental regulation happens. Ringius shows the power of public ideas and policy entrepreneurs Lasse
in international negotiations in a way that has implications far beyond this particular case.”
— Elizabeth R.DeSombre, Environmental Studies and Government, Colby College
Ringius
Global Environmental Accord: Strategies for Sustainability and Institutional Innovation
Cover images ofsea turtle and clouds ©2000PhotoDisc, Inc. RINRP
0-262-68118-8
The MITPress
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142
http://mitpress.mit.edu
Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea
Global Environmental Accord: Strategies for Sustainability and
Institutional Innovation
Nazli Choucri, editor
Peter M. Haas, Robert O. Keohane, and Marc A. Levy, editors, Global
Accord: Environmental Challenges and International Responses
Ronald B. Mitchell, Intentional Oil Pollution at Sea: Environmental
Policy and Treaty Compliance
Robert O. Keohane and Marc A. Levy, editors, Institutions for
Environmental Aid: Pitfalls and Promise
Oran R. Young, editor, Global Governance: Drawing Insights from the
Environmental Experience
Jonathan A. Fox and L. David Brown, The Struggle for Accountability:
The World Bank, NGOs, and Grassroots Movements
David G. Victor, Kal Raustiala, and Eugene Skolnikoff, editors, The
Implementation and Effectiveness of International Environmental
Commitments: Theory and Practice
Mostafa K. Tolba with Iwona Rummel-Bulska, Global Environmental
Diplomacy: Negotiating Environmental Agreements for the World,
1973–1992
Karen T. Litfin, editor,The Greening of Sovereignty in World Politics
Edith Brown Weiss and Harold K. Jacobson, editors, Engaging
Countries: Strengthening Compliance with International Environmental
Accords
Oran R. Young, editor, The Effectiveness of International Environmental
Regimes: Causal Connections and Behavioral Mechanisms
Ronie Garcia-Johnson, Exporting Environmentalism: U.S. Multinational
Chemical Corporations in Brazil and Mexico
Lasse Ringius, Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea: Public Ideas,
Transnational Policy Entrepreneurs, and Environmental Regimes
Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea
Public Ideas, Transnational Policy Entrepreneurs,
and Environmental Regimes
Lasse Ringius
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2001 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information
storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
Set in Sabon by The MIT Press.
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ringius, Lasse.
Radioactive waste disposal at sea : public ideas, transnational policy
entrepreneurs, and environmental regimes / Lasse Ringius.
p. cm. — (Global environmental accord)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN0-262-18202-5 (hc. : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-262-68118-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Radioactive waste disposal in the ocean—International cooperation. I. Title.
II.Global environmental accords.
TD898.4 .R56 2000
363.72'89—dc21 00-031879
Contents
Series Foreword vii
Preface ix
1 Introduction 1
2 History of Efforts to Control Ocean Disposal of Low-Level
Radioactive Waste 21
3 Transnational Coalitions of Policy Entrepreneurs, Regime Analysis,
and Environmental Regimes 35
4 Scientific Advice and Ocean Dumping: Knowledge-Based Regime
Analysis 59
5 Ocean Dumping and U.S Domestic Politics: Power-Based Regime
Analysis 73
6 Negotiating the Global Ocean Dumping Regime: Interest-Based
Regime Analysis 87
7 Explaining Regime Formation 109
8 Changing the Global Ocean Dumping Regime 131
9 Explaining Regime Change 153
10 Conclusion 171
Key Events 195
Notes 197
References 231
List of Interviews Cited 255
Index 257

Series Foreword
A new recognition of profound interconnections between social and natural
systems is challenging conventional constructs and the policy predisposi-
tions informed by them. Our current intellectual challenge is to develop the
analytical and theoretical underpinnings of an understanding of the rela-
tionship between the social and the natural systems. Our policy challenge
is to identify and implement effective decision-making approaches to man-
aging the global environment.
The series on Global Environmental Accord adopts an integrated per-
spective on national, international, cross-border, and cross-jurisdictional
problems, priorities, and purposes. It examines the sources and the conse-
quences of social transactions as these relate to environmental conditions
and concerns. Our goal is to make a contribution to both intellectual and
policy endeavors.
Nazli Choucri

Preface
My first encounter with international regimes took place in the late 1980s.
At that point I was employed by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
and one of my tasks was writing memos and reports on international com-
modity arrangements for jute, tropical timber, tin, and cocoa. I have since
then been increasingly interested in the issue of international cooperation,
particularly cooperation for the protection of the environment and natural
resources.
Writing this book offered me the opportunity to focus on an important
environmental issue—disposal of radioactive waste at sea—and a fascinating
international environmental regime—the global ocean dumping regime. The
book is based on my doctoral dissertation, completed at the Department of
Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute (EUI) in
Florence, in which I examined prominent regime theories and presented an
empirical study of the global ocean dumping regime and regulation of ocean
disposal of low-level nuclear waste. In this book I have further developed
the theoretical argument outlined in the dissertation, in particular the global
significance of public ideas, transnational coalitions of policy entrepreneurs,
and environmental nongovernmental organizations.
At EUI, Giandomenico Majone and the late Susan Strange introduced
me to the role of ideas and information in policy analysis and regime analy-
sis. A substantial part of my empirical research was carried out during a
two-year stay as a visiting researcher at the Center for International Studies
and in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. Eugene Skolnikoff and Larry Susskind gave invalu-
able advice and enthusiastically supported me during my stay in Cambridge.
I have revised my dissertation over a longer period in which I have been
focusing primarily on the issue of global climate change at the Center for