The Politics of Radwaste Management in Sweden

Abstract

Taking as its point of departure a conceptualization of society as compnsing three interdependent spheres - civil society, the state and the economy - the article focuses on Swedish policy for radwaste management. Nuclear power policy in Sweden was elaborated in cooperation between the state and the industry, but came in for lively discussion and politicization dunng the 1970s The problem of radioactive waste was an essential part of the critique of nuclear power, but despite that radwaste management has been depoliticized, and today it is the responsibility solely of the nuclear companies themselves. Sweden, like many other countries, will dunng the 1990s start to decide where to locate the repository for spent nuclear fuel. However, basically because of the possibility of local opposition, the siting of such facilities is anything but unproblematic, and therefore the attitude of the civil society to a site is an essential factor to be taken into consideration. This attitude has to do with circumstances that are more or less specific to each locality. Hence, when it comes to the siting of radwaste, the role of the municipality becomes crucial, situated as it is at the interface between civil society, the state and the economy.