Invisible waste. Governing past uranium mines in France.

• In Event: Governing Toxic Waste 1

Abstract

Extractive industries produce many kinds of waste, some of them produced through chemical transformation processes, and others set aside during mechanical extraction activities. In France, the classification of these waste has important consequences, as some of them are considered « industrial waste », and others « mining waste », and are covered by different regulatory texts. This distinction has been even more problematic in the case of the many uranium mines scattered across metropolitan France. These mines are not longer operating, and are currently being managed by a state-owned private company that specializes in uranium extraction and transformation. This paper draws on an empirical fieldwork related to controversies about the management of former uranium mines in France and the definition of their associated waste, in which government bodies, private companies, and civil society groups are involved. These controversies relate to what counts as « waste », what it means to be « nuclear », and how these categories are sustained by regulatory and material processes. By delineating the controversial regulatory and material circulation of waste across mining sites in France, and the various problematizations of uranium residues that emerge from public confrontations between the private company and its stakeholders, we show that current debates about the former France uranium mines can be understood thought an analysis of the politics of categorization. For whom these categories matter and how they map onto various forms of exposure to uncertain radioactive risks are then pressing issues for understanding the political economy of former mining activities.

Authors

• Brice Laurent, Ecole Des Mines De Paris

• Julien Merlin, Mines Paristech

• Yann Gunzburger, Ecole des mines de Nancy