Environmental Court

One big milestone for ESS construction is obtaining our environmental license. Without it, we can't begin to break ground. A business applies for a license and in the process shows all the expected waste (chemical, radioactive, etc), chemical storage, and various other things that might matter to the environment. For instance, we will use ammonia for our heat exchangers to reduce the use of HFCs. In concentrated amounts, ammonia can be deadly, so ESS had to show that we have thought about the safety procedures for that. Since I am in charge of the user labs, I contributed to documentation with chemical inventory lists and waste amounts. During the process of supplying the courts with more information, I gave an "intro to neutron science" presentation to the County Board, environmental court is at the State level (federal for you Americans). They found it very helpful and requested that I give the talk at the State hearing. State matters must be available and open to all Swedes, so obviously it is held only in Swedish. Our legal counsel petitioned the court for me to give my talk in English. They said no, so we had to have a Swedish speaker give it for me. I worked on the presentation; Sindra translated it, then I coached her on what to say. I was still to attend the hearing, in case there were questions.

The court is located about 2/3 the distance from here to Stockholm, but they always travel to where the issue is. This means they sit in a lot of living rooms and local restaurants. In this case, we are a high profile case so we met in a barn turned discotheque/music venue. Ironically enough, before the property had been turned into such a place, Sindra had lived there.

Here we are setting up. Notice the purple dance light to the left. It was such an odd place to have court.

 

Here is the court coming in across the way. There was a judge, an attorney, two experts, and a court recorder. I'm sad to say that even in Sweden where they claim sexual equality, the only woman was the court recorder. I'm happy to say that there were two representatives from science and we were both women, woohoo!

 

There was an environmental NGO there, Good Earth, and there were local farmers there in opposition of us.

 

 

Notice in the back of the picture there's James Dean and Clint Eastwood and Humphrey Bogart. I mentioned it to Sindra and she said a lot of people are obsessed with America in the 50's. The court had asked the County Board, the radiation regulatory commission, the fire brigade, and Lunds Commun to be there.

 

Here is the ESS representation. My seat was in the second row to the left.

 

There were about 20 of us. Sindra pointed out that we were a wall of suits, dressed as if to intimidate. After she said that, and after listening to the farmers (well, feeling their sentiment), I felt a bit strange. It seems that before this day I would have put myself on the side of the little guy, but there I sat on the big corporation side in my suit. I believe in scientific research, and believe that next generation facilities are important to our development, but it was a bit strange being the "expert in the suit."

In the end, I spent 3 days listening to Swedish and got props at the staff meeting for my efforts. The county board gave a moving speech in ESS' favor saying that we have to always stay ahead of the next thing in scientific development. Let's face it, if we didn't, you wouldn't be reading this blog post right now. 

Posted with Blogsy