Nuclear waste management in Lithuania and Sweden: responses to contingent historical and political circumstances

ABSTRACT The Baltic Sea region is the site of a considerable number of nuclear power stations. Although predominantly operational, several have been decommissioned and new ones are in the planning stage. The volume of nuclear waste in the region continues to increase, while the development of national nuclear waste programs differs in each country. This article investigates national framings of nuclear waste issues in Lithuania and Sweden in order to understand their articulation in response to particular historical and political circumstances. Following the technopolitical framework, this article engages with the argument that nuclear industry developments create both incentives and constraints for nuclear waste programs that foster various forms of legacies; historical, technological, or political. Firstly, this article sets out the relation between the nuclear industry and nuclear waste issues in each country. Secondly, it reveals how decommissioning policies in both countries streamed nuclear waste programs developed in dissimilar sociopolitical contexts. The final section presents empirical details about constraints and incentives that become visible through analysis of the impact of nuclear policy legacies and continuities on waste regimes, including regulatory, licensing and participation practices, research programs, and technology innovation.