The Nuclear Tomb: The Social (Un)Acceptability of Nuclear Waste in Ontario, Canada
Dr. Polleri has examined the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) attempt to find an informed and willing host for the disposal of Canada’s high-level radioactive waste in a deep geological repository potentially situated in the province of Ontario. The research explored the issue of social acceptability of nuclear waste-sitting within groups that either oppose or agree to host an underground landfill site for spent nuclear fuel. Dr. Polleri is interested in studying the notion of an informed and willing community, especially when issues of public participation in controversial scientific issues revolve around a set of pluralistic communities that invariably have divergent interests, cultural values or lifestyles. As such, he is exploring how definitions and perceptions of risks and benefits are produced, mobilized, and communicated to the population, as well as how different communities receive, interpret, and use nuclear-related information to make a potential hosting decision. Regarding willingness, Dr. Polleri is interested in understanding the moral, social, and economic imperatives that influence consent for nuclear waste-sitting, as well as what consent politically implies in the face of multigenerational issues that go beyond decisions made by a single generation? Ultimately, the research plans to highlight how social (un)acceptability of waste and controversial projects are determined in liberal democracy that nominally rely on public participation, while also being influenced by corporate factors and neoliberal ideologies. Dr. Polleri has already collected ethnographical data in Ignace and South Bruce, two communities considered by NWMO.
Funding:
Insight Development Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
Polleri, Maxime. 2025. Les enjeux éthiques multigénérationnels de l’enfouissement des déchets nucléaires pour la santé publique [The multigenerational ethical issues of nuclear waste disposal for public health]. In Vers une politique de santé publique, eds. Michèle Stanton-Jean et Christian Hervé, 117-136. Collection « Éthique biomédicale et normes juridique ». Paris : Dalloz.
Nuclear Waste’s Social Acceptability: Comparing Japanese and Canadian Deep Geological Repositories
As part of a JSPS Invitational Fellowships for Research in Japan with Professor Kohta Juraku at Tokyo Denki University, this project has examined the social acceptability of controversial projects within Japanese and Canadian communities who are involved in the potential hosting of radioactive waste. We are interested in comparing Japan’s and Canada’s long-term management plan for spent nuclear fuel, which will be contained in an underground facility called a "deep geological repository" (DGR). Throughout the world, the selection of a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste often requires an informed and consenting community who will host a DGR. In 2024, Canada found a community who was willing to host a DGR. However, Japan is still looking for such a community, particularly in Hokkaido and Saga Prefecture. The main purpose of our research was to map the different mechanisms that influence the social acceptability of nuclear waste burial. Our research had three specific sub-objectives: 1) To analyze the internal logic of communities interested in hosting a DGR on their territory; 2) To identify external power issues that influence consent among communities; 3) To understand how cultural discourses potentially influence the search of an informed and willing community. This latter point is especially interesting in Japanese society, who has a nuclear heritage drastically different from Canada.
Funding:
Invitational Fellowships for Research in Japan, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Temporal Imaginaries and Nuclear Waste Governance in Japan
This research examines the role of temporal imaginaries in the governance of radioactive waste generated by Japanese nuclear power plants. For several decades, spent nuclear fuel has posed significant management challenges because it remains too hazardous to be disposed of in conventional landfills. To address this issue, Japan plans to confine its spent nuclear fuel in underground facilities known as deep geological repositories (DGR).These disposal programs raise profound temporal challenges that extend beyond the scope of contemporary governance: How can the risks associated with these facilities be communicated across millennia? How should questions of intergenerational ethics be addressed? How can the hazards of DGRs be governed within political systems characterized by short electoral cycles?To examine how nuclear waste is governed and contested through specific temporal imaginaries, this research pursues three objectives: (1) to identify the influence of sociocultural factors on nuclear waste governance; (2) to analyze how non-Western conceptions of time shape geological disposal strategies; and (3) to move beyond the short-term temporal frameworks that have traditionally structured waste management to develop a deeper understanding of deep time, a temporal scale that extends far beyond the human lifespan.
Funding:
Insight Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
