Lessons from archaeology and heritage studies for the long-term preservation of records, knowledge and memory concerning deep geological disposal sites for nuclear waste
Authors: Holtorf Cornelius , Högberg Anders 
Published: November 2021

Abstract. Safe disposal of nuclear waste in deep geological repositories requires secure knowledge transfer or knowledge recovery in time spans of many tens of thousands of years. Never before has any detailed record, knowledge or memory been reliably preserved or recovered over comparable time periods. This challenge has been extensively addressed since the late 1980s, initially during the SANDIA workshops in the USA and more recently in the Nuclear Energy Agency/Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (NEA/OECD) project on Preservation of Records, Knowledge and Memory Across Generations (Schröder, 2019). Experts from many disciplines including engineering, the natural sciences, information technology, social studies of science and technology, semiotics, public management, and design as well as artists have contributed to these discussions. Some scholars from the humanities have been involved in working on these issues, especially in recent decades. At the same time, much of the existing work has drawn on assumptions about human history, archaeological monuments and cultural heritage that have been scrutinized and deemed deeply flawed by Joyce (2020). The authors of the present paper are archaeologists and cultural heritage
experts. For the past decade, they have been working with the challenge of
preserving records, knowledge and memory concerning deep geological disposal sites for nuclear waste (Holtorf and Högberg, 2021). From the perspective of the human sciences, in particular archaeology and heritage studies, the unique task at hand involves not only the previously recognized challenges that require consideration of long-term material durability, linguistic intelligibility, and appropriate sense-making of any communicated information but also two challenges not previously addressed: Human action as informed by cultural and social processes. In designing of various long-term mechanisms, we risk overlooking that what people will do is not going to be governed by mechanics. How human beings learn, reason, value, decide, and act is informed by specific cultural and social processes creating context and meaning. We must avoid ignoring these complexities governing human thinking and agency. This challenge requires more work on understanding how sentient and intelligent beings like humans act in variable contexts across time and space. Our anticipatory assumptions. A proverb states that “nothing ages faster than the future”. In making assumptions about future generations' understandings, meanings, and significances of our nuclear waste we risk “colonizing” the future, fail to embrace variability over time, and miss realizing multiple futures and emerging conditions. We must therefore not foreclose uncertain futures but instead create circumstances favorable for change and transformation of relevant knowledge and memory. This challenge requires more work with processes of translation between generations. The challenges of assessing our anticipatory assumptions and understanding how humans act will also need to be addressed in transmitting records, knowledge and memory for the benefit of future generations.