Environmental politics and the enchantment of modernity : mercury and radioactive waste disposal in Sweden

Abstract: Current Swedish environmental policy embraces the notion of sustainable development and the discourse of ecological modernisation, both of which stress the role of modern institutions in environmental protection work. In pursuing ecological sustainability, the Swedish Government assigns importance to the issue of domestic, safe, final disposal of mercury and radioactive waste; responsibility for mercury and radioactive waste management must not be passed to future generations. This political message is not particularly controversial. Yet, siting conflicts tend to arise when the policy is going to be put into practice. The aim of this thesis is to relate the emergence and course of siting conflicts concerning mercury and radioactive waste disposal to discursive aspects of its context. The societal context in which the siting process takes place contains contemporaneous, sometimes incompatible and competing discourses. The questions raised in the thesis are: What does the political message of safe, final waste disposal and sustainable development entail? What are the implications of this particular framing of the issue?The policy proposing final disposal of mercury and radioactive waste in repositories deep in the bedrock requires local implementation. In the local implementation process the parties involved in the siting conflict struggle over definition of the suggested project, with the core of the conflict being the issue of risk versus safety. In this sense, the local conflict echoes contemporaneous and partly incompatible discourses within modernity, as well as the tension between demands for safety and uncertainties in calculations and management connected to proposals for the final disposal of mercury and radioactive waste.The overall handling of environmental threats within the discourse of ecological modernisation can be characterised as a presentation of problems with ultimate, possible win-win solutions and an economic, technological and scientific framing of the problems. This results in a reduction of the complexity of the issue at stake, concealing its political dimensions. In the process of policy implementation, however, there emerge deferred political issues and value questions, as well as unresolved societal issues, all of which tends to result in local siting conflicts.