The Social Shaping of Radwaste Management: The Cases of Sweden and Finland

Abstract

Today, all nuclear power countries seem to have geological disposal as their ultimate solution to the problem of highly radioactive waste. However, experience from many countries shows that this kind of siting is often a highly contested issue involving conflicts between actors on different levels. This paper analyses such conflicts as struggles between different actors aiming to realize their own perceptions and social definitions of the issue. The empirical objects consist of four recent radwaste conflicts in Finland and Sweden. It is found that ready-made definitions on the national level do not penetrate easily into the local level, but are instead produced and reproduced in mutual interaction between different groups on both local and national levels.