Deep Geological Repositories for Solving the Nuclear Waste Problem? w/Rony Emmenegger

In this episode, we focus on one of the most challenging problems generated by human technology: where can highly radioactive waste from nuclear energy production be safely disposed for the next one million years?

Through the lens of political geology, Dr. Rony Emmenegger tells the story of the long search for a deep geological repository in Switzerland (and beyond) and its crucial socio-political implications. He introduces us to the concept of passive safety, which builds on the idea that responsibility for radioactive waste can be delegated to geological formations underground to ensure safety in the long term. Given the widespread social and political attitude to rely on techno-scientific expertise, he urges us to move away from asking whether or not a problem can be solved – in this case by deep geological repositories – and to focus on what kind of science is actually involved.

Our guest, Rony Emmenegger, is a political geographer with a keen interest in the governance of human-environment relations. His work focuses on how knowledge of the deep geological underground is produced in the case of nuclear waste governance and how it is articulated and contested in the public sphere.

For additional resources and a deeper exploration of Rony’s work and views, please visit:

https://www.unifr.ch/geo/en/department/staff/research/people/239300/a2c19

https://www.unifr.ch/geo/humangeography/en/research/political-geology.html

https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/220005

Further reading:

Emmenegger, R. (2025): Nuclear Strata: Enacting Clay for the Deep Geological Disposal of Nuclear Waste in Switzerland, Environment and Planning E. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486251324935

Emmenegger, R. (2021). Deep Time Horizons: Vincent Ialenti’s Deep Time Reckoning: How Future Thinking Can Help Earth Now. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Anthropocenes–Human, Inhuman, Posthuman, 2(1). https://www.anthropocenes.net/article/id/1015/

Hecht, G. (2014). Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade. Cambridge (MA): MIT press.

Bobbette, A., Donovan, A. (2019). Political Geology: An Introduction. In: Bobbette, A., Donovan, A. (eds) Political Geology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98189- 5_1

Beyond the Fix is brought to you by Critical Scientists Switzerland, an independent network of scientists. It is made possible by the Stiftung Mercator Schweiz and produced by Podcastschmiede. Host: Thomas Kobel. Music: Mich Gerber.

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