Consolidating the Strata: Geoscience and Underground Territory in South Korean Radioactive Waste Disposal

Abstract

In South Korea, the nation with the world's highest density of nuclear power plants, the disposal of high-level radioactive waste has become a pressing sociotechnical concern. Faced with local residents’ refusal of disposal facilities, scientists at the national research institutes have been making their case that the nation's underground is a safe and trustworthy site for radioactive waste disposal. This paper examines three strategies used by government scientists to turn the underground into a reliable container of radioactive waste. First, their practice of mapping mitigates uncertainties about underground irregularities and produces a widely acceptable representation of strata. Second, scientists utilize simulations to contain long-term changes and extend their epistemological power into the far future. Third, scientists propagate their subterranean visions to a broader audience by using underground laboratories as a site of demonstration and persuasion. These spatial, temporal, and cultural strategies let scientists and the Korean government consolidate the strata into physically durable and politically governable territory. The analysis of geological disposal in South Korea asks us to move beyond the technopolitics of extraction to explore that burial as an increasingly important site for STS research.