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.

The German phrase "grüne Wiese" has become shorthand for the disappearance of a nuclear site, yet its meaning remains contested. This article traces how the phrase was first mobilized in anti-nuclear protest before being appropriated by industry and politicians to project a narrative of safe, cyclical nuclear power production. As Germany enters an intensive phase of decommissioning, the gap between promise and reality raises unresolved questions about nuclear waste and cultural heritage.

In Maji’s novel, readers encounter the many enchanted worlds of uranium mining in central India. Here, the Indian state and Adivasi communities classify and understand nuclear materials, processes and institutions as exceptional or mundane in distinctive ways. We argue that in these encounters, choices are shaped by the spiritual and material continuities of Adivasi life and political and cultural forces of mainstream India arising from extractive economies, modernity & postcolonial conditions.

From Cold War extraction to post-mining remediation, this paper examines how uranium mining in East Germany – locally embedded in global power structures – shaped everyday life, regional identity and long-term futures. It traces how people live with ambivalences and radioactive afterlives, and how knowledge, memory and nuclear heritage circulate across generations. By revealing spatio-temporal entanglements, it demonstrates why nuclear legacies demand justice, responsibility, future visions.

Producing electricity from nuclear fission was a new concept in the 1950s. To engage the public, the industry publicised the construction and opening of each new power station in the 1950s–60s. This article examines the industry narrative and argues that aspects were emphasized or hidden to suit the industry needs. Emphasis on scientific innovation and protection of the natural environment is evident, while elements of risk are omitted to promote an ideal method of electricity generation.

Germany’s Site Selection Act mandates long-term safety (1 million years) for high-level radioactive waste repositories. This requires assessing volcanic hazards over geological timescales. Regions with such risks must be excluded from site selection. The Quaternary volcanic fields of the Eifel and Vogtland are examples of subrecent activity relevant to evaluating future volcanic potential in Germany.