Institutional Legitimacy and Sustainable Nuclear Energy Governance: A Comparative Sociotechnical Analysis

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🔬研究者:Provides a novel composite index (TETI) for assessing governance quality in nuclear energy systems, useful for comparative institutional analysis.

🏢実務担当者:Offers insights for nuclear operators and regulators on how transparency and inclusion can enhance regulatory compliance and public trust.

🏛政策担当者:Highlights the importance of institutional legitimacy in nuclear governance, suggesting policy reforms to strengthen stakeholder participation and equity.

As nuclear energy re-emerges as a central component of global decarbonization strategies, the long-term sustainability of nuclear energy systems increasingly depends not only on technical performance but also on institutional legitimacy embedded within sociotechnical governance systems. Drawing on institutional theory, sociotechnical systems theory, and energy justice scholarship, this study conceptualizes regulatory compliance not merely as adherence to formal safeguards but as a governance-mediated outcome associated with institutional legitimacy, procedural transparency, distributive equity, and stakeholder inclusion. Employing a sequential explanatory mixed-method design, the study develops a composite Trust–Equity–Transparency–Inclusion (TETI) Index through structured coding of regulatory documentation, international peer-review findings, and participatory governance practices across advanced and emerging nuclear programs. The analysis examines the association between governance quality and cross-national indicators of regulatory compliance, institutional stability, and governance durability. The findings suggest that governance systems characterized by higher levels of transparency, equity, stakeholder inclusion, and institutional trust are associated with stronger compliance performance and greater regulatory resilience. Although exploratory and based on a small-N comparative design, these patterns are consistent with sociotechnical perspectives that identify institutional legitimacy as a critical governance mechanism supporting durable regulatory institutions. By reframing regulatory compliance as a governance-mediated sociotechnical outcome, the study advances a theoretically grounded framework for understanding how institutional legitimacy may contribute to the long-term sustainability and durability of nuclear energy governance under conditions of technological complexity, public scrutiny, and global energy transition. The findings offer conceptual and policy insights for strengthening governance architectures that support safe, equitable, and sustainable civilian nuclear energy development.

• Research Square https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202607.0957.v1first seen 2026-07-22 04:35:05