Reaching for Common Ground Radioactive Wastes, Heterogeneous Collectives, and Environmental Futures

Radioactive wastes, once discarded with little concern for the spread of contamination, are now subject to concerted state-sponsored efforts to produce secure and effectively perpetual containment infrastructures. Current UK policy is to bury the wastes in a geological disposal facility. The siting...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSocial analysis Vol. 68; no. 2; pp. 65 - 81
Main Author Harvey, Penny
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Berghahn Books, Inc 22.06.2024
Subjects
Collaboration
Common good
Common ground
Common lands
Geology
Radioactive wastes
Siting
United States
United Kingdom
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Summary:Radioactive wastes, once discarded with little concern for the spread of contamination, are now subject to concerted state-sponsored efforts to produce secure and effectively perpetual containment infrastructures. Current UK policy is to bury the wastes in a geological disposal facility. The siting of this facility depends on the identification not only of a site with suitable geology but one where residents are demonstrably willing to host the facility. The article focuses on the diverse ‘commoning’ practices that this voluntaristic policy has brought about, including the possibility of articulating a common good across diverse scales of time and place, of acknowledging the tensions between economic and ecological needs, and ultimately of struggling to reconfigure ‘the commons’ itself as a lived space of ongoing deliberation and intrinsic uncertainties.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0155-977X
1558-5727
DOI:10.3167/sa.2024.680204