The substantial quantities of radioactive waste which exist in the UK largely as a result of the activities of government agencies or government owned companies since the 1940s, raise important and difficult questions concerning how trade-offs between both the levels and distribution of costs and environmental quality/safety associated with different waste management decisions.
This paper is concerned with how the institutional arrangements for dealing with issues surrounding radioactive waste management can best be developed. Our main focus is on those factors that at other times and in other industries have been shown to influence regulatory developments.