Consideration on the Intergenerational Ethics on Uranium Waste Disposal

This review provides insights into resolving intergenerational issues related to the disposal of waste containing high amounts of uranium (uranium waste), from which distant future generations will have higher health risks than the current generation.

Uranium (half-life: 4.5 billion years) produces various progeny radionuclides through radioactive decay over the long term, and its radioactivity, as the sum of its contributions, continues to increase for more than 100,000 years. In contrast to high-level radioactive wastes, protective measures, such as attenuation of radiation and confinement of radionuclides from the disposal facility, cannot work effectively for uranium waste. Thus, additional considerations from the perspective of intergenerational ethics are needed in the strategy for uranium waste disposal. The current generation, which has benefited from the use and disposal of uranium waste, is responsible for protecting future generations from the potential risk of buried uranium beyond the lifetime of a disposal facility. Fulfilling this responsibility means making more creative efforts to convey critical information on buried materials to the distant future to ensure that future generations can properly take measures to reduce the harm by themselves in response to changing circumstances including people's values.