Socio‐Technical Challenges of Finland's Nuclear Waste Policy: Discussion of the Techno‐Scientific Community on the Geological Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel

The objective of the paper is to study different views on the future challenges that the geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) will encounter. We investigate how engineers, natural scientists, representatives of the nuclear industry, regulators, and laypersons from non‐governmental organizations perceive the remaining socio‐technical challenges for implementing geological disposal by examining discussions in a professional magazine covering nuclear waste management issues. The paper focuses on the post‐site selection phase associated with the planned disposal facility at Olkiluoto in Finland. This phase (between 1999 and 2010) represents the period after the nuclear waste management company Posiva submitted the Decision‐in‐Principle (DiP) application for the final disposal facility for SNF in 1999 and the ratification of the DiP regarding the final disposal of SNF by the Finnish Parliament in May 2001. The paper provides a theoretical elaboration of the term socio‐technical that will lay the foundation for empirical analysis as well as a brief overview of the state of affairs regarding the Finnish SNF management program. Results show that market actors were clearly the most active players in defining and discussing final disposal. Qualitative analysis identified six kinds of socio‐technical challenges: socio‐technical regime challenges, social acceptance challenges, knowledge challenges, safety challenges, construction challenges, and flexibility challenges.