Synopses & Reviews
The issue of nuclear waste is about managing some of the most dangerous material ever to exist. This has to be done safely, and in a way that remains safe for many thousands of years. To realize safe disposal, satisfying bedrock conditions are needed as well as people willing to accept disposal in their own community. In most countries this kind of place has been difficult to locate. This book is the first of its kind, reporting a study which analyses in detail the highly controversial decisions on how to finally dispose of nuclear waste in Sweden, a country considered a forerunner in nuclear waste management. The siting process is traced, as are its connections both back in time and to the global community. From the perspective of science and technology studies the study contributes to the understanding of regulation of controversial technical issues in modern societies.
Synopsis
When did man discover nuclear waste? To answer this question, we first have to ask if nuclear waste really is something that could be called a scientific discovery, such as might deserve a Nobel Prize in physics. In early writings within nuclear energy research radioactive waste appears to be a neglected issue, a story never told. Nuclear waste first seems to appear when a public debate arose about public health risks of nuclear power in the late 1960s and early 70s. In nuclear physics, consensus was established at an early stage about the understanding of the splitting of uranium nuclei. The fission products were identified and their chains of disintegration and radioactivity soon were well- established facts among the involved scientists, as was an awareness of the risks, for example the strong radioactivity of strontium and iodine, and the poisonous effects of plutonium. However, the by-products were never, either in part or in total, called or perceived as waste, just as fission by-products. How and where to dispose of the by-products were questions that were never asked by the pioneers of nuclear physics.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments. Abbreviations. Prologue.
1. A Critical Matter.
2. Constructing a Theoretical Framework.
3. The Discovery of Nuclear Waste.
4. Interpreting Absolute Safety.
5. No Particular Place to Go.
6. Geologists Mapping Bedrock.
7. The Myth of Democracy.
8. Regulating Technological Systems. References. Index.