A Problem of Politics of Technique? Insights from Waste-Management Strategies in Sweden and France

Sweden and France are in many respects in the vanguard of high-level radioactive waste disposal efforts, and they offer sharp contrasts regarding basic strategies and underlying philosophies for waste management. We compare their waste disposal programs for insight into the dilemma of siting and developing a permanent waste repository. We find that technical decisions, as well as the more obvious sociopolitical decisions about repository development, are shaped by deep-seated social and political forces in each nation. Copyright 1991 by The Policy Studies Organization.