  Nuclear energy technologies have the potential to help mitigate climate
change. However, these technologies face many challenges, including high costs,
societal concern and opposition, and health, safety, environmental and
proliferation risks. Many companies and academic research groups are pursuing
advanced designs, both fission and fusion-based, to address both costs and
these risks. This Chapter complements these efforts by analyzing how nuclear
technologies can address societal concerns through the acquisition of a social
license, a nebulous concept that represents "society's consent" and that has
been used to facilitate and improve a wide range of publicly and privately
funded projects and activities subject to a range of regulatory oversight,
including large industrial facilities, controversial genetic engineering
research, and environmental management. Suggestions for public engagement and
consent-based siting, two aspects of a social license, have been made before.
This chapter modernizes these suggestions by briefly reviewing the social
license and engagement literature. The Chapter discusses, in the context of how
to acquire a social license, the role of government regulation, the role of
project proponents and government actors, and the role of four key principles,
including engendering trust, transparency, meaningful public engagement, and
protection of health, safety and the environment. Further, the Chapter uses the
social license concept to explain why some nuclear waste repositories have
succeeded while others languish and provides concrete recommendations for the
deployment of new nuclear waste repositories and advanced power plants, both
fission and fusion-based.
