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NIRAS, nuclear waste agency

Situation

NIRAS is the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile materials. This federal agency by law is responsible for the management of nuclear waste. Its mission is to draw up the inventory, to handle, treat and stock radioactive waste and to propose solutions for its long term depository and management.

In 2006 the Belgian government decided to dispose of the low and medium active short-lived waste in a surface disposal installation; NIRAS now needs a decision in principle for the high active long-lived nuclear waste so as to steer its further research and development in the right direction. The decision is relatively urgent as the agency will need another three to four decennia on R&D to work out any type of solution.

Such a decision is highly subject to pressure and influences from political, industrial en environmental groups.

Project

PRP (Belgium) provides strategic consultancy to NIRAS in the fields of networking and communication with view on obtaining the much needed decision to allow the agency to fulfi mandate.

Strategy

As this federal agency until 2009 only communicated reactively, a communications strategy was developed for the next five years focusing on positioning, pro-activity on transparency. Next communications plans have been drafted to accompany the specific projects linked to the implementation of the earlier decision on category A waste as well as the Waste Plan related to the cat B & C waste, and issue management.

Key elements of the Corporate Communications accompaniment include:

  • Corporate communication:
  • Review of house style (please advice the meaning of house style), publications, websites;
  • Media relations with a mapping of the media landscape, spokesmanship, media trainings and coaching, development of procedures, statements & Q&A’s, informal press meetings;
  • Networking with a mapping of tier 1 to 3 stakeholders, identification of visibility platforms, development of storyboards, setting up programs and follow up procedures;
  • Setting up public participation processes;
  • Accompaniment of citizen consultation forums;
  • Issue management with monitoring of key influencers and editing and proactive deliverance of statements, and stand-by;
  • Trainings and coaching.

PRP also accompanies the communications plans of the specific projects with both national and local activities.

Results

PRP achieved:

  • NIRAS is no longer perceived as a non-communicative and non-transparent federal agency. The media have begun to start asking for NIRAS’ view on topics that are related to thei mission. The Belgian politicians have been made aware of the urgency of a decision, providing the direction in which NIRAS has to work in the next decennia.
  • The agency now controls the communications on its many projects and is able to enhance synergies and to avoid disrupting programming of announcements and activities.

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