Intergenerational Ethical Issues and Communication Related to High-Level Nuclear Waste Repositories

The nuclear power industry started in the 1950s and has now reached a phase of disposing high-level nuclear waste. Since the 1980s, the United Nations has developed a concept of sustainable development and governments have accordingly made ethical commitments to take responsibility towards future generations. The purpose of this review is to examine ethical dilemmas related to high-level nuclear waste disposal in a long-term perspective including potential access to the waste in the future. The time span considered here is 100,000 years based on current experts' assessment of the radiological toxicity of the waste.

In this review, we take into account findings on ethical issues related to the disposal of high-level nuclear waste put forward by the Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC), the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), nuclear waste management companies (SKB in Sweden and Posiva Oy in Finland), and several researchers. Some historical examples are presented for potential guidance on methods of communication into the future. According to the sustainable development ethical principle, adopted by the United Nations, we conclude that governments with nuclear energy have committed themselves to protect future generations from harm related to high-level nuclear waste. This commitment involves the necessity to convey information together with the nuclear waste. Our paper examines disposal options chosen by Sweden and Finland, as well as some contemporary and historical efforts to design messages towards the future. We conclude that the international community still needs to find methods to communicate in an intelligible way over long periods of time.