Geological Knowledge, Institutions and Materiality in the Construction of the Promise of Safe Geological Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel in Finland

Within the international ‘nuclear community’, geological disposal is generally accepted as the preferred option for safe long-term isolation of high-level radioactive waste from the biosphere and living organisms, through the operation of both engineered and geological barriers, without the need of human intervention. This promise is vital not only for the affected potential host communities but also for the nuclear sector itself, whose survival hinges on its ability to demonstrate a credible solution for the enduring ‘waste problem’. Drawing on the ‘sociology of expectations’, most notably on the concepts of the economy of techno-scientific promising,1 we examine the construction of the promise of safe geological disposal. Through the case of Finland, poised to become the world’s first country operating a deep geological repository, we illustrate the political nature of geological knowledge and its entanglement with the discursive, institutional and material dimensions of the promise of safe disposal. As we argue, techno-scientific promises are not mere talk but are instead embedded in successive reconfigurations of formal and informal institutions, as well as in materialities such as R&D funding, underground research laboratories, and final repositories.

We apply these premises to a longitudinal qualitative document analysis of the Finnish repository project from the 1970s up until the present stage. The waste management company Posiva—owned by the nuclear utilities TVO and Fortum—is currently awaiting a positive statement from the national nuclear safety authority and an approval from the government on its operating license application. The study draws on material from Posiva, TVO, and the national authorities, at three key phases in the repository licensing process: 1) the decision-in principle, ratified in 2001 by Parliament, 2) the construction licence (submitted by Posiva in 2012 and approved by the government in 2015); and 3) the operating licence (submitted by Posiva in 2021). Our study highlights the changing role of geological knowledge in the co evolution of the discourses, institutions and materialities that make up the promise. These processes have been characterised by simultaneous stability and requalification of the promise, and by constant changes in the weight and roles of engineering and geological knowledge.

The article contributes to scholarship on techno-scientific promises by highlighting the political nature of geological knowledge, its interplay with engineering knowledge, and the joint contribution of these types of knowledge to the construction of the promise of safe geological disposal. It furthermore contributes to the emerging interdisciplinary field of political geology.