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SKB International

School of Geological Disposal

Strategies and communication for consent-based siting

Level 2
Target audience Managers and employees involved in the siting process for repositories for high level waste. This course is intended for participants who need a broad understanding of the siting process, the stakeholder landscape, and how to communicate effectively with different groups throughout the process.
Purpose To provide participants with a comprehensive insight into SKB’s decades-long experience in siting a final repository for spent nuclear fuel — with a special focus on siting and communication strategies, public relations, and stakeholder engagement. The course aims to show how resistance can be transformed into resonance through transparency, dialogue, and long‑term trust‑building.
Learning Outcomes After completing the course, participants will:

  • Understand the strategic foundations of SKB’s successful siting process
  • Recognise key factors that influence repository siting in different national contexts
  • Gain practical insights into stakeholder mapping, engagement strategies, and communication methods
  • Learn how transparency, openness, and long-term trust-building support programme credibility
  • Identify similarities and differences between SKB’s experience and the legal/political landscape in their own country
  • Appreciate the municipality’s role in siting and how local perspectives shape public acceptance
  • Be able to apply lessons learned from SKB’s programme to their own organisational siting processes
Lecturers
Claes Thegerström
Former CEO of SKB with extensive experience in strategic decision‑making, international cooperation, and high‑level stakeholder engagement.
Stig Björne
Manager at SKB’s communication department and CEO of SKB Näringslivsutveckling AB.
Eva Häll
Public relation officer at SKB and has over 38 years of experience in communication.
Kajsa Engholm
Public relation officer at SKB and has over 27 years of experience in communication, mainly to schools and universities.
Jacob Spangenberg
Former mayor of Östhammar Municipality.
Type Online course with pre-recorded presentation modules and four live streamed events. Opportunity to ask questions to lecturers who will give answers during the course through the course portal and/or the live streaming events.
Prerequisite Basic understanding of the siting process and of strategies in communication.
Extent 9 pre-recorded presentation modules with lengths around 15 to 45 minutes each. 4 live streamed events (webinars through Teams).
Examination NA
Date 18 March – 29 April, 2026
Contact person Erik Thurner (erik.thurner@skb.se)

Course description

This course offers a unique opportunity to explore how SKB’s management team and communication professionals have strategically built public trust around one of Sweden’s most complex long‑term societal challenges — the management of nuclear waste.

Participants will follow SKB’s siting and communication journey from the early start in the 1970s with the study sites followed by the feasibility studies, through the site investigations, licensing to the present day. The course illustrates how strategic choices, transparency, and long-term engagement helped transform initial resistance into acceptance and ultimately resonance with the stakeholders involved.

The course draws on SKB’s internationally recognised siting process and provides valuable insights for organisations working with — or preparing for — the siting of a geological repository for high-level waste.

We will explore:

  • The basis for the siting approach
  • Strategic communication approaches
  • Who SKB communicated with
  • How stakeholders were engaged and involved
  • What SKB learned — and the key factors behind its communication success

A unique module presents the perspective of the Municipality of Östhammar. The former Mayor shares how the municipality engaged residents, cooperated with SKB, and built trust and transparency throughout the process.

Contents

Nine different presentations are available, each of them listed below:

  • The Swedish system
  • Overview – From resistance to resonance: Communicating nuclear waste management over five decades
  • Siting and communication strategies during study sites and feasibility studies
  • Strategy and selection of sites for the site investigations
  • During site investigations – How to reach out to different stakeholders/public – incl. final site selection
  • Added values for the municipalities Östhammar and Oskarshamn
  • Perspectives from the municipality in Östhammar
  • Next phase after the site selection up until today – the licensing process on a national and local level
  • The key lessons learned for the siting process

Please use the final registration form to register for the course.

Course Flyer Final Registration form School of Geological Disposal - Strategies and communication

Last review: May 13, 2022

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