Paper short abstract:

Ethics of radioactive waste management require this generation to control that waste in perpetuity without risk or responsibility for future generations. Other dangerous residues from previous generations continue to resurface, often reconceived as heritage. Here I explore this divergence.

Paper long abstract:

There are always things we don't want; things we never wanted, but can't get rid of. The abject, the contaminated, the dangerous residues. We create management systems, infrastructure, to contain these residues, and residues elude them. In the mid 20th century, when we began experimenting with the powers of radioactive materials, there was little thought given to their persistence. Over the following decades, as publics became more aware of the danger, new categories of waste were defined: toxic waste, radioactive waste. The dominant model for the future management of these residues is now called 'the Swedish Model', though no repository has yet been completed or even begun construction in Sweden. The ethical underpinning of the Swedish Model requires that this generation should bear the entire burden of managing radioactive waste. Future generations should have no responsibility and no risk should be passed forward. This position of extreme temporal control reflects the extreme sense of danger associated with these abject materials. In this paper I will examine how other abject materials persist and resurface in human systems to become heritage; and consider the management regimes designed to contain dynamic material as an attempt to create both spatial and temporal purity.