The information provided by the operator on nuclear risk: what response to stakeholders' expectations?

Summary The objective of this thesis is to find out if there are gaps between stakeholders' expectations and the information disseminated by the operator on nuclear risk in its annual report. First, I investigate the motives that lead companies to disseminate environmental information, combining legitimacy and stakeholder theories. I then establish that financial accounting does not allow to account for the whole nuclear risk. In particular, accounting translations (provision and contingent liability) do not include risks of uncertain occurrence and high potential damages, such as the risk of nuclear accidents. Consequently, this thesis broadens the scope of analysis beyond the financial statements to include all information disseminated by the operator in its annual report. In a second step, I conduct a study to determine stakeholders' expectations regarding information on nuclear risk, and then compare these expectations to the information disseminated by operators in their annual reports. Two complementary measures allow me to analyze this information. The first measure, which is descriptive, indicates that only 7% of the information disseminated on nuclear risk in annual reports is numerical information, visible to the reader and dealing with specific objectives or actions taken by the operators. The second measure deals with the quality of the information. It suggests that much information desired by stakeholders is not disseminated. Overall, the expectations of regulatory, financial, and, to a lesser extent, media stakeholders seem to be met, while those of industry associations are very imperfectly met.