Application-oriented transdisciplinary basic research on nuclear waste management: hollow phrase or sensible concept?

Abstract

Abstract. In relation to the discourse and controversy surrounding the problem of nuclear waste disposal, an increasing interest in the form and design of research on the subject can be observed among stakeholders and the interested public, as is evident in the final report of the Repository Commission (2016) and in the discussions during the Sub-Areas Conference. In the authors' opinion, this is partly due to the fact that the actions of different scientific institutes and scientists varied widely during the conflicts of past decades. An attribution as “issue advocacy”, i.e., as an actor serving a particular political agenda (Pielke, 2007), appeared obvious in many cases, and led to controversy and fundamental criticism of the role of “science” (Repository Commission 2016, Chap. 4.1.1 on the Asse II mine and particularly the two “parallel representations” of the Gorleben site in Chap. 4.1.4). For these reasons, the Repository Commission recommended the creation of transdisciplinary research collaborations (ibid., Chap. 6.9). With the joint TRANSENS project (http://www.transens.de, last access: 21 October 2021), a transdisciplinary collaboration has been created to pursue application-oriented basic research into four “theme corridors” of nuclear waste management. The term theme corridor was introduced in light of the limitations of the “co-design” approach, i.e., the cooperative formulation of research questions, within the constraints stipulated by application and funding processes. The term describes the fact that the selection and width of topics are still subject to change even during the transdisciplinary research. The conception and implementation of this innovative approach led to a series of conceptional and theoretical but also practical questions. Due to different and sometimes divergent definitions (cf., e.g., Klein, 2013), within the project, the term “transdisciplinarity” is understood as a reflexive, integrative, and methodology-guided scientific principle geared towards solving a societal problem and related scientific challenges, i.e., nuclear waste management. A central element is the inclusion of non-specialists and actors from the realm of practice in the field in the research processes, in order to incorporate their (non-specialist) knowledge, values, and expectations. According to Maasen's typology (2010), the application-oriented basic research performed in the project is “interventional” (in other publications: “transformative”) to only a limited extent, but, in contrast, primarily “methodological” and “distributed.” There thus exists a distance to the site-selection process and other nuclear waste management projects in Germany. The actors or groups of actors to be included and the transdisciplinary formats are selected on a stepwise case-by-case basis, depending on the type and subject of the research (cf. the examples from TRANSENS subprojects presented in other papers submitted to the symposium). This presentation reflects findings and experiences in view of a complex conception and application process and currently 2 years of research experience from the perspective of the participants (the standing working group and other scientists) using case studies from the theme corridors. It thus provides a discussion basis for the session “Challenges & Solutions of disposal research and transdisciplinarity”.