UNESCO

Chair on Heritage Futures

Nuclear Waste and Heritage Futures

2024-11-19

Reconsidering the Heritage Future of Nuclear Waste Hazards: A Permanent Legacy

By C. Pescatore, Affiliated Researcher and member of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University

The question of “How long and how dangerous is high-level nuclear waste?” is rarely answered in full. Often, people are told that the radiation threat will diminish over time, as many radioactive products decay. While this is true to an extent, it only tells part of the story. The reality is more complex and far-reaching. Spent nuclear fuel is composed of roughly 95% uranium-238 (U-238), an isotope that behaves differently than the remaining 5% components that are much more actively decaying. Although its radioactivity may initially seem insignificant compared to more immediate hazards, over time U-238 will reconstitute its decay chain, leading to a resurgence of radioactive danger.

The radioactivity of U-238 does not simply decrease to insignificance; instead, it eventually increases as it reestablishes its broken decay-family, producing a host of hazardous progeny isotopes. For spent fuel, this increase becomes dominant beyond the one-million-year mark – well beyond the timeframe when many safety analyses have already been concluded. While safety cases often focus on the decay of radioactivity, they overlook the radioactive ingrowth that arises from U-238. This shift challenges conventional thinking and demands a refocusing of our long-term strategies for managing nuclear waste.

The implication is profound: the danger from high-level nuclear waste does not merely fade away. It transforms into a persistent, long-term alpha-, beta- and gamma-radiation hazard that requires sustained vigilance and robust containment strategies far into the future. This enduring risk calls into question assumptions about the timeframe for which safety must be maintained, extending our responsibilities across an almost unimaginable span of time.

Preserving Memory and Heritage for the Far Future

This brings us to the pressing question of heritage, memory, and how we communicate the information about high-level nuclear waste across extended time spans. Ensuring that future societies remember the existence and significance of these waste repositories requires a robust effort to preserve records, knowledge, and memory (RK&M).

One promising approach is the use of millennial time capsules strategically placed within or near repositories. These capsules can carry messages, warnings, and cultural artifacts that bridge the gap between our time and a distant future. Some capsules could be constructed from the same materials as the waste containers and placed within the repository to offer a final, deeply embedded source of knowledge that future discoverers might encounter, potentially guiding their understanding and actions.

Near-surface capsules could further engage communities through rituals of memory preservation and periodic inspections, creating cultural continuity and reinforcing the message of caution. Historical examples like the Osaka Castle Dual Time Capsule illustrate how science and cultural heritage can blend to transmit knowledge across generations.

Photo: Osaka Time capsule monument, Wikipedia, 12 februari 2012 https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Osaka_Time_Capsule.jpg

However, even with the best physical and cultural tools at our disposal, the fundamental question remains: How do we effectively communicate the danger posed by these wastes across millennia? Symbols, language, stories, and rituals may change, but the risk endures. Preserving memory is not just a technical challenge; it is a societal one, requiring us to create a living “heritage future” of caution, awareness, and responsibility – one that future generations can draw upon to protect themselves from the enduring radiation hazard that lies beneath.

Further reading

Research into time capsules was suggested to the Swedish Government in this 2016 report by Pescatore available online at:  https://www.sou.gov.se/contentassets/9ffa0b1ff6954c58ba9e0dd8db733ffc/report_pescatore_10_nov_2016.pdf

A November-2024 technical paper by Pescatore deals with the long-term intrinsic radiation hazards of high-level nuclear wastes: http://www.nukleonika.pl/www/back/full/vol69_2024/v69n4p215f.pdf

Clau Pescatore, Affiliated Researcher and member of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University

Claudio Pescatore is affiliated researcher and member of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University.

Forthcoming events

2024-04-30

Cornelius Holtorf kommer att diskutera den Svenska kulturarvskanon den 27 nov 2025 i Göteborg! Anmälan senast 20 nov 25 här.

Varje år anordnar Kulturarvsakademin Forum kulturarv som fokuserar på aktuella teman kring kulturarv. I år är temat för evenemanget “kultur(arvs)kanon”.

Hur vill vi minnas det förflutna och vilka berättelser vill vi föra vidare?

Program
13:00 Inledning, Karl Magnusson, ordförande i Kulturarvsakademin
13:15 Lars Trägårdh, professor i historia och ordförande i den kommitté som regeringen
tillsatt som ska ta fram en svensk kulturkanon.
13: 45 Cornelius Holtorf, UNESCO professor i Heritage Futures, Linnéuniversitetet
14:15 Fika och mingel
15:00 Karin Nilsson, verksamhetschef och tf överintendent ArkDes
15:30 Åsa Arping, professor i litteraturvetenskap, Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria
och religion vid Göteborgs universitet.
16:00 Paneldiskussion
16:45 Publikens talan/Avslutning av moderator

Inbjudan här

Futures Literacy Laboratory

2023-09-25

Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg co-organized and co-ran (with C. Kavazanjian, UNESCO, Paris, N. Christophilopoulos, UNESCO Chair on Futures Research, Greece, and M. Packer, OECD/NEA, Paris) the first Futures Literacy Laboratory in collaboration between UNESCO and OECD/NEA.

Picture: Rebecca Tadesse, Head of Radioactive Waste Management and Decommissioning Division at OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, welcomes participants

Dedicated to exploring “The Future of Human Responses to Deep Geological Repositories” a total 17 international participants were present at the Lab which was held at the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) in Stockholm (25 September 2023).

The Lab established the usefulness of the skill of futures literacy in the context of awareness preservation concerning long-term repositories of nuclear waste. Futures literacy encompasses both an awareness of the large significance of present-day assumptions about the future and an understanding of multiple alternative futures lying ahead of the contemporary world.

 

Taking care of nuclear waste

2023-07-21

Now published and available in open access:

Cornelius Holtorf (2003) Taking care of nuclear waste. In: Toxic Heritage. Legacies, Futures, and Environmental Injustice. Edited By Elizabeth Kryder-Reid and Sarah May (Routledge). 

This visual essay contains impressions and reflections about long-term communication concerning long-term storage of radioactive waste and was inspired by a visit to the nuclear facilities at Olkiluoto, Finland. The site is known from Michael Madsen’s 2010 documentary Into Eternity. The images refer in various ways to selected aspects of climate change, public acceptance, uncertainty, world heritage, and the art of forgetting.

Alternative futures in the past

2023-02-08

Attila Dézsi published one of the most challenging and insightful articles coming out of German archaeology in recent years.

His archaeological excavation and study of the 1980 Gorleben Peace Camp, which is also the topic of his PhD research at the University of Hamburg, offers a critique of the current interest in Dark Heritage and the popular denouncement of the destructive character of contemporary capitalism. Dézsi calls instead for a much stronger appreciation of the “common heritage of hope and the power of collective action,” for “[i]t is not only destruction to which archaeologists should draw attention, but also to the past efforts of many peoples who opposed this destruction and violation.”

The Gorleben antinuclear protest village, also known as Republic of Free Wendland, was an iconic site for the German environmental movement during the 1980s. It was directed not only against the building of the nuclear waste depository nearby but also against the nuclear society and the entire capitalist system behind it. Dézsi’s research documents that the camp was partly about outspoken protest but primarily it was a collective “cry for an alternative future based on human dignity.”

The archaeological site of the village created by its inhabitants reveals an approach to the future that may be described as prefigurative: in the Republic of Free Wendland, a better future was lived already (see image below, taken from the paper, click for source and credit).

figure 2

The archaeological excavation Dézsi directed showed in all lines of inquiry that “the creation of a community, socializing, and enjoyment was much more prevalent than specific manifestations of protest or resistance.”

Sites like the Republic of Free Wendland, Dézsi argues, “provide inspiration and give us the ability to grasp that alternative actions and solutions are neither impossible, nor require specialist equipment and materials – everything we need is there.”

His work also shows how the future can be addressed by an archaeology studying the past. It is not only the heritage we preserve that may provide tangible benefits of future generations, but also our very understanding of human lives in the past, including the recent past which some of us will remember. Dézsi’s research paper, which is available in open access at the link below, shows that alternative futures have always been possible.

Dézsi, Attila (2023). You May Destroy This Village, But You Cannot Destroy the Power Which Created It. International Journal of Historical Archaeology (pre-print online publication). 

Remembering the Past in the Future

2022-11-23

Cornelius Holtorf attended the conference “Remembering the Past in the Future” arranged by the Expert Group on Awareness Preservation of the Nuclear Energy Agency at the OECD at the Tabloo Visitor Centre in Dessel, Belgium (22-24 November 2022).

He organised and chaired a session on “Conceptualising Remembrance Across Generations” which was attended by an audience of more than 60. His own paper was entitled “History or heritage? Understanding cultural processes over time”. Anders Högberg participated virtually in the session and presented on “Futures literacy – Why it matters to transmit information on high-level radioactive waste to future generations.” The session ended in a lively discussion on what exactly the message might be that the present needs to send to the future in relation to long-term memory of final repositories of nuclear waste.

Into Eternity

2022-04-08

Cornelius Holtorf and Leila Papoli-Yazdi attended the Sixth International Conference on Geological Repositories (ICGR-6) in Helsinki, Finland (4-8 April 2022). The conference was held in the Paasitorni, a former Worker’s Assembly Hall now a transnational serial nomination for UNESCO World Heritage.

Among the topics discussed at the conference were questions about building trust in society and managing uncertainty. One irony is that ignorance and indifference may lead to trust whereas knowledge and engagement may result from (and support) distrust.

The conference included a site visit to the Finnish low- and intermediate-level waste repository and visitor centre (ONKALO) at Olkiluoto. The site became well known through the 2010 documentary Into Eternity.

 

Mångårigt SKB-samarbete med viktiga resultat

2022-03-10

När regeringen i januari 2022 sa ja till att bygga ett slutförvar för använt kärnbränsle i Forsmark i Östhammars kommun, lyfte flera aktörer frågan om hur informationsbevarande till framtida generationer ska utformas. Många menade att det nu är dags att växla upp forskningen om hur minnespraktiker och informationsöverföring till framtida generation ska organiseras och ske.

Sedan 2011 har jag och Cornelius Holtorf arbetat med dessa frågor. Det har vi bland annat gjort tillsammans med Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB). Med anledning av regeringens beslut blev jag nyfiken på vad SKB uppfattar att vårt arbete tillsammans har givit dem. Sofie Tunbrant är en av våra närmaste samarbetspartners på SKB. Under ett kort samtal med henne frågade jag vad hon ser som viktiga resultat från vårt samarbete.

 

Här är Sofie Tunbrants svar:

Under dessa lite mer än tio år har vårt samarbete bidragit på många sätt och jag vill speciellt lyfta fram två aspekter: ni har breddat våra perspektiv och ni har gett oss nya kontakter och därmed möjligheter att introducera frågan i flera sammanhang.

Ni har tagit med SKB in i många nya konstellationer där vi fått tillfälle att arbeta tillsammans inom områden och med personer som vi inte kände sedan tidigare. Ett av många exempel är att ni öppnat upp för oss att brett möta forskarvärlden, så vi har kunnat inleda samarbete med forskare och forskningsmiljöer. Ett fint exempel är vår medverkan i projektet Heritage Futures vid UCL, där vi blev inbjudna som partner. Ett annat exempel är tillfällen då vi kunnat mötas i gränslandet mellan forskning och konstnärlig gestaltning för att diskutera gemensamma frågor, som när ni arrangerade en workshop med rundabordssamtal i samarbete med kuratorn Ele Carpenter och Malmö Konstmuseum i anslutning till utställningen Perpetual Uncertainty.

Sammantaget har detta fått effekter hos oss på SKB. Vi har fått ett omfattande nätverk, som vi inte kunnat få till på egen hand. Det har hjälpt oss att utvecklas i våra sätt att se på och förstå frågan om informationsöverföring. Vi har också kunnat skapa en mer fördjupad kunskap om vad komplexiteten i frågan handlar om. På så sätt har vårt samarbete gett oss många nya insikter, kunskaper och möjligheter.

Ni har också tagit med SKB i nationella och internationella konstellationer som vi inte kunnat delta i utan vårt samarbete. Det gör att SKB har kunnat berätta om sitt arbete med informationsbevarande i nya sammanhang. Ett exempel är konferensen Information and Memory for Future Decision-Making i Stockholm 2019. Här kunde vi under tre dagars seminarier och diskussioner arbeta med frågan tillsammans med representanter från bland annat kommuner, miljöorganisationer och myndigheter.

Genom våra samarbeten har SKB kunnat introducera frågan om informationsbevarande i anslutning till slutförvaren med radioaktivt avfall i en mångfald av sammanhang. Det finns flera aktörer som arbetar med informationsbevarande på lång sikt, men som inte tidigare kopplat sitt arbete till SKB:s slutförvar. Att fler personer och aktörer känner till och reflekterar över frågan gör att den hålls levande. Det är avgörande för att samhället ska kunna arbeta med de lösningar som krävs för att framtiden ska ha de kunskaper och verktyg de behöver.

av Anders Högberg

Prof Anders Högberg UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures

Professor Anders Högberg UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures

 

Heritage Futures, webplats HÄR

Perpetual Uncertainty, info HÄR

Information and Memory for Future Decision-Making, rapport HÄR

Strålsäkerhetsmyndigheten har nyligen publicerat en rapport där vårt arbete lyfts fram, den nås HÄR

Kärnavfallsfrågan i media

2022-01-27

Idag tar den Svenska regeringen beslutet om slutförvar för kärnavfall.

I det sammanhanget blev Cornelius Holtorf flera gånger de senaste dagarna intervjuat om långtidsminne av slutförvaret och kärnavfall. Anders Högberg intervjuades i Svenska Dagbladet.

Radio P4 Kalmar (27 jan 22): Så ska man kommunicera med svenskarna 100 000 år i framtiden

Radio P1 Studio Ett (26 jan 22): Hur ska slutförvaringen kommuniceras till eftervärlden?

TT 24 & 29 jan 22: Minibladet, Norrländska Socialdemokraten, Södermanlands Nyheter, Mariestads-Tidningen (2 feb 2022), Ny Teknik, Nya Wermlands-Tidningen, Nerikes Allehanda, Katrineholms Kuriren, Motala & Vadstena Tidning, Enköpings-Posten (31 jan 22), Aftonbladet, Dagens Näringsliv, E55, Helsingborgs Dagblad Premium, MSN, Sydsvenskan Premium, Göteborgs-Posten, Norran, Piteå-Tidningen, Vestmanlands Läs Tidning, Barometern (29 jan 22), Gefle Dagblad (27 jan 22), Västerbottens kuriren, Folkbladet Västerbotten (26 jan 22), Sydsvenska dagbladet (25 & 29 jan 22), Skånska dagbladet (24 jan 22), Nyheter 24 (24 & 29 jan 22). Hur pratar vi kärnavfall med framtiden?

Svenska Dagbladet (29 jan 22): Frågan om slutförvaret: Ska framtiden varnas?

Upsala Nya Tidning (3 feb 22)

Sveriges radio (5 Feb 2022), Juniornyheterna Special: Hur pratar man med framtiden?

Radiation Safety Authority follows

2021-11-15

In the new report “Redovisning av regeringsuppdrag om metoder för säkerställande av information och kunskap över lång tid för slutförvaret för kärnbränsle” (SSM rapport 2021:24), the Swedish Nuclear Safety Authority has been documenting known methods for achieving long-term memory in relation to nuclear waste repositories.


The report makes reference to the key literature and documentation in the field globally, while also discussing the specific situation in Sweden. We have long been in touch with the two authors Carl-Henrik Pettersson and Annika Bratt, and so it is not surprising that the work of Linnaeus University on this topic, both in Sweden and internationally, is mentioned on several occasions. This includes in particular a short separate discussion of the 2019 workshop Information and Memory for Future Decision-Making – Radioactive Waste and Beyond run by the Swedish Nuclear Waste Council in Stockholm and the VINNOVA project on Memory Across Generations it led to. There is also a short discussion of our research project Ett hundra tusen år bakom och framåt i tiden – arkeologi möter kärnbränsleförvaring supported by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co back in 2012-2015.

We are still very involved in these issues, at the moment mostly as part of an expert group at the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency.