Demonstrating safety – validating new build: the enduring template of Swedish nuclear waste management

Abstract

Since the 1970s, the template for Swedish nuclear waste management has been for industry to deliver “nuclear fuel safety” after first demonstrating to government authority how and where it can be achieved. In other words, nuclear fuel safety has been something to be publicly witnessed before it is decided whether or not industry should be allowed to carry on implementing its plans. From the outset, these industry plans encompassed the completion of the Swedish nuclear power programme itself, as this was made contingent upon a demonstrated solution to the waste problem. However, after a national referendum on the future of nuclear power in 1980, industrial progress in nuclear fuel safety became directly connected with a safe phase out of a 12-reactor programme within 25 years of its completion. As plans for such a phase out have in turn grown subject to indefinite postponement, and as opposition to nuclear power has progressively mellowed, so the nuclear industry's highly resilient nuclear fuel safety programme appears set again today to validate nuclear new build both at home and abroad. Drawing on studies of three specific management tools – safety analyses, EIA consultations and alternative “dialogue projects” – this article seeks to chart the unremitting and indomitable Swedish commitment to the mediation of nuclear waste management through industrial demonstration as this has withstood various attempts to introduce a greater element of public dialogue into the policy process in response to both siting conflicts and new environmental legislation.