Extreme long-term preservation of information – who cares? Swedish opinions about nuclear waste information

摘要

Information concerning a planned repository for nuclear waste in Sweden needs to be preserved for future generations in ways that make it available and comprehensible up to 100,000 years from now. This paper examines current planning for information preservation and opinions on the issue expressed by a variety of interested parties. A literature overview outlines the major strategies for preservation of information related to nuclear waste forwarded in international research. Documents concerning the industry’s plans for information preservation were collected. Consultation responses concerning the application submitted by universities, government agencies and environmental organizations were also collected and examined. The first document study elucidates the industry’s application and plans for information preservation in relation to current research in the field. The second document study clarifies opinions on the issue expressed by the various participants in the consultation process. The Swedish nuclear industry has a relatively high awareness of strategies for information preservation forwarded by researchers. Planning is however limited to maintaining a readiness for later decisions. With a few exceptions, other interested parties keep a low profile and comment only on technical matters. Societal interest in the issue of long-term information preservation is generally low. A tentative explanation is that the extreme time-scale involved makes the problem difficult to grasp. The equally long-term technological and geological problems are easier to discuss since they do not demand knowledge of the future development of human society.