This article discusses the specificity of citizens' "participation" in contexts of decision-making on the acceptance of nuclear risk, demonstrating that such acceptance depends on mediation by professionals who are willing to translate the typical scientific jargon of technical reports and/or produce their own reports, by way of counter-expertise; otherwise, lay people are unable to confer scientific legitimacy to their arguments. The basic empirical references for the current analysis are the recurrent themes from public hearings organized for licensing of two Brazilian nuclear power plants using German technology, Angra 2 and Angra 3, with an emphasis on the latter, now undergoing prior environmental licensing. The forms of "social control" engendered in France serve as a counterpoint for developing the article's argument.
nuclear risk; people's participation; expertise