This study examines non-knowledge in Germany’s radioactive waste site selection as a socially constructed concept. It analyzes institutional and public discourses within the procedure, revealing conflicting temporal dimensions of non-knowledge that reflect a structural dilemma in making binding decisions. The study argues that deferrals leave lasting impacts by consuming future potential and emphasizes the need for decision-makers to transparently debate acceptable levels of unknowns.

This study explores how participatory regional development can be included into the planning of large-scale infrastructure projects in contested settings, such as the siting of nuclear waste repositories. Through comparative case studies, the authors identify key success factors and recurring challenges. The findings emphasise the importance of long-term engagement and conditions that preserve trust over a long timespan, rather than relying solely on financial compensation.

Fusing fact and fiction, The Half-Life Afterlife is a time-travelling artwork reflecting on the entangled nature of our human-generated nuclear activities from the vantage point of an unspecified and undefined future. It assumes the form of a collection of recently discovered bentonite clay objects that have been subject to speculative research methods before being catalogued and displayed in a very human attempt to imbue them with cultural significance and meaning as future nuclear artefacts.

Pretreatment of radioactive waste by Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) in Accelerator-Driven Systems (ADS) has been mentioned as an approach to significantly reduce the requirements and risks associated with a – still necessary – final repository for decades. We show that the technological concept is still very much the same as the one proposed decades ago and discuss possible additional revenue from radioisotope production in transmutation facilities.

We studied how crushed salt changes over time so it can safely seal a future waste repository. By combining new laboratory tests with improved computer models, we created a clearer picture of how the material compacts and when it becomes tight. Our results reduce uncertainty in long‑term predictions and support safer planning for storing radioactive waste underground.

Knowledge of how gas moves through clay-rich rocks and barrier systems in a radioactive waste disposal facility is important to give confidence to long-term containment of waste. The GT experiment was designed to determine the physics driving gas movement in Opalinus Clay, the candidate host rock in Switzerland. The way gas moved through the rock was seen to change based on the rate of gas pressurisation rate – by analogy, the rate of gas production in a geological disposal facility.