Table Of ContentTHE BEDROCK OF OPINION
Science, Technology and Society in the Siting of High-Level Nuclear Waste
ENVIRONMENT & POLICY
VOLUME 32
The titles in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
The Bedrock of Opinion
Science, Technology and Society
in the Siting of High-Level Nuclear Waste
by
Goran Sundqvist
Section of Science and Technology Studies,
Goteborg University, Sweden
,-
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SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-90-481-5958-1 ISBN 978-94-015-9950-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-9950-4
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© 2002 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2002
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Contents
Acknowledgments ..... ....... .... .......... ... ... .......... ... ...... ...... ... ..... ... ....... ..... ... ... ix
Abbreviations .............................................................................................. xi
Prologue
Who Wants the Waste?
- A Meeting in Stockholm, 1996 . .......... ...... ...... ... ........... ......... ........ I
1 A Critical Matter
Matter Out of Place ........................................................................... 7
Analysing the Place of Matter ........................................................... 8
Experts in Modem Societies .......... .... ....... ..... .... .......... .......... ... ....... II
Sweden, Nuclear Power, and Nuclear Waste ................................... 13
Multi-Barrier Agreements ................................................................ 14
The Contested U.S. Programme ...................................................... 18
The Famous Swedish Programme ................................................... 20
Comparing Siting Strategies ............................................................ 22
Outline and Objectives .................................................................... 24
Author's Position ............................................................................. 25
2 Constructing a Theoretical Framework
Introduction ..................................................................................... 29
Controversies and Consensus: Science and Political
Decision-Making ............................................................................. 31
The Construction of Controversies and Consensus ......................... 38
The Politics of Constructing Controversies and Consensus:
The Dilemma ofS&TS? .................................................................. 43
3 The Discovery of Nuclear Waste
Introduction ..................................................................................... 49
The Early History of Radioactive Waste ......................................... 52
The Early Swedish Context ............................................................. 56
The Role of Experts in the Early Swedish Nuclear Era ................... 60
The First Principles of Nuclear Waste Disposal .............................. 65
Nuclear Waste: The Achilles' Heel of Nuclear Power ..................... 68
v
vi
4 Interpreting Absolute Safety
Introduction ..................................................................................... 75
Science vs. Policy ............................................................................ 75
A New Government and a New Act ................................................ 76
The Regulation of the Ringhals 3 Reactor ....................................... 78
The Review Process ................................................................. 80
The Government's Interpretation of the Act ............................ 84
The New Application ............................................................... 88
The National Referendum as a Final Solution ......................... 92
Science vs. Policy in the Regulation of the Ringhals 3 Reactor ...... 94
Politicians Using Experts ................................................................. 98
Conclusions ................................................................................... 103
5 No Particular Place to Go
Introduction .... ......................................... ...................................... 109
The KBS 3 Concept and Another New Act ......... ....... ............ ... .... 110
The R&D Programmes 1986-1995: Two Strategies of Siting ....... 113
One Strategy of Siting? .................................................................. 125
Explaining the Strategies ............................................................... 126
Rationalism ............................................................................ 127
Cultural Theory ...................................................................... 134
Conclusions ................................................................................... 137
6 Geologists Mapping Bedrock
Introduction ................................................................................... 143
The First Investigations .................................................................. 146
KBS Geological Investigations ...................................................... 149
KBS Supplementary Investigation ................................................. 152
KBS 3, Aspo Hard Rock Laboratory
and the SKB R&D Programmes .................................................... 158
Geological Interpretations .............................................................. 162
Networking Geologists .................................................................. 165
Conclusions ................................................................................... 170
vii
7 The Myth of Democracy
Introduction ................................................................................... 175
Public Acceptance ......................................................................... 176
Swedish Democracy: Corporatism ................................................ 178
Democracy in Theory .................................................................... 179
Legislation, Decision Making and Democracy .............................. 183
Feasibility Democracy ................................................................... 186
The Municipality of Storuman ............................................... 186
The Municipality of Mahl ...................................................... 189
Municipalities Hosting Nuclear Facilities .............................. 191
The Municipality ofNykoping .............................................. 192
The Municipality of 6sthammar ............................................ 194
The Municipality ofOskarshamn ........................................... 195
The Oskarshamn Youth Opinion ............................................ 198
Tbe Municipalities ofTierp, Hultsfred and A.lvkarJeby ......... 20 I
Feasible Democracy and Strategic Actions ............................ 204
National Coordination ................................................................... 206
SKB's Choice of Site Investigations .............................................. 208
Acceptability: The Myth of Democracy ........................................ 211
Conclusions ................................................................................... 214
8 Regulating Technological Systems
Introduction ................................................................................... 221
Rocks and Marmalade ................................................................... 222
The Myth of Science and the Myth of Democracy ........................ 225
Science, Technology and the Construction of Society ................... 226
Opening the Black Box of Swedish
Nuclear Waste Management .......................................................... 227
References ............................................................................................... 229
Index ........................................................................................................ 243
Acknowledgments
This book has been made possible with the kind help of many individuals
and a few organizations. My interest in the nuclear waste issue started in 1991
when I spent two years working as a social scientist at the Swedish National
Board for Spent Nuclear Fuel. In my initial efforts to understand the waste
problem I was greatly helped by OlofSoderberg and Nils Rydell. After leaving
the Board, grants from the Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of
Research, the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate and the Swedish Radiation
Protection Institute made possible the research on which this book is based.
I want to acknowledge my gratitude to my research department, the Section
of Science & Technology Studies, Goteborg University, which provided
generous intellectual support and a warm atmosphere. Several ofm y colleagues
have directly contributed to the improvement ofthe manuscript. Ingemar Bohlin
carefully read the whole manuscript, and I hope to have succeeded in applying
his astute remarks on how to carry out a symmetrical study. Hans Glimell gave
valuable comments on parts of an early version and Rolf Lidskog shared my
interest in analysing the problem of siting nuclear waste.
I also want to thank two colleagues from related departments at Goteborg
University. Per Hedberg, Department of Political Science, who let me use, for
my own purpose, some results from the survey we made together in Oskars
harnn which are presented in Chapter 7 and Barbara Czarniawska, Gothenburg
Research Institute, who gave important feedback on the manuscript at a critical
stage of the work, and also encouraged me to believe that it would be worth
publishing as a book.
lowe a lot to those who share my interest and engagement in local demo
cracy. Those I met in Oskarsharnn, and the discussions with Harald Ahagen,
Kjell Andersson, Torsten Carlsson, Krister Hallberg and Tomas LOfgren have
been important for the study.
A large portion of this book was written during the spring semester of
1997 when I was visiting scholar at the Department of Science & Technology
Studies, Cornell University. This semester offered me the time and intellectual
environment to complete a preliminary version of the manuscript.
Three people provided professional assistance with more technical issues.
Everett Thiele proofread my English. Thank you Everett for being so engaged
in work. Maria Lycke provided all the diagrams, and though faithful to the
originals, she made them easier to understand. Finally it was Ylva Beckman
who transformed a heap of paper into an attractive camera-ready manuscript.
ix
x The Bedrock of Opinion
I dedicate this book to my wife Ema and daughter Lisa. Thank you both
for sharing with me the ten years needed in order to understand the nuclear
waste problem. When looking back over these years I especially remember
our journey to Ithaca where we had such a good time together, but also all the
ordinary days in Goteborg, where you made life worth living.
Goteborg, August 2001
