Sweden’s 100,000-year nuclear puzzle: Scientists develop strategies to protect information on critical waste repositories

Five hundred meters below the ground near the village of Flosmark in Sweden, is a repository containing tens of thousands of years of material. content? Depleted nuclear fuel – The risk of radioactive waste generated by energy production to invisible to human senses.

Researchers at Linköping University solve an unprecedented challenge: designing a communication system that could span 100,000 years to warn future generations about this dangerous underground scene.

“We are trying to do things we have never done before. The person who ends up reading this may not even be human, but some kind of AI or something.” said postdoctoral researcher Thomas Keating, who led the research project with Professor Anna Storm in the Department of Theme Research, Technology and Social Change.

Their solution is a 42-page document called “Key Information File” (KIF), a bright yellow guide that contains key information about the nuclear waste repository. The document is produced by three years of research and is divided into three parts: abstract, critical information and future directives.

KIF is not only a technical document. It was designed as an artifact designed to endure and attract readers across generations, with professional illustrations on its covers even mysterious coded messages designed to inspire curiosity.

This approach reflects a fundamental question: How do you communicate dangers between time spans beyond recorded human history?

The Swedish authorities face unique challenges in managing nuclear waste. While the repository is designed to be sealed and theoretically inaccessible, the researchers acknowledge that “an accidental or intentional intrusion, technological failure or existence of social change cannot be excluded,” which is crucial to retaining the knowledge about the following.

The initiative comes as several European countries have developed final disposal solutions for nuclear waste. France and Switzerland are developing similar documentation projects for their repositories.

As language, symbols and media develop, researchers have established update mechanisms in their designs. KIF defines the task descendants when necessary to update the information and transfer it to a new storage medium.

This approach is named Shire (share, imagine, update) – encourages readers to actively participate in maintaining and updating knowledge, rather than just passively accepting knowledge.

“Maybe we need a whole new field of research to do this kind of memory research. Keating suggests that this could be something that colleges develop.

The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB) funded the research, but the issue of long-term responsibility remains open. Keating noted that SKB “don’t want formal responsibility, but rather willing to contribute in some form”, partly because the company does not want to exist outside of the completion of the repository.

Researchers recommend updating the documentation every decade, although it is not clear who will oversee the process in Sweden.

The report reported that the document had been extensively reviewed “in scientific workshops and among representatives of clients, public and industry organizations, domestic and international”.

Plans have been made to preserve key information documents in the Swedish National Archives. Additionally, it will be part of human memory, an archive project, which was established in 2012 in Austria to preserve human knowledge of durable materials.

“So it will be printed on ceramic sheets and placed in an old salt mine on the Austrian hills,” Keating explained.

This ceramic protection echoes ancient method of record preservation, allowing the project to circle in full – using lessons from human past to protect its future.

The repository itself represents a sober responsibility. The document clearly states that it contains “materials that are dangerous to humans and other organisms” because “they are radioactive and cannot detect radioactivity with human senses”.

What makes this communication challenge particularly daunting is that modern humans have never successfully retained specific information anywhere near the time board required. The oldest written record known dates back to about 5,000 years, while only 5% of the 100,000 years of nuclear waste remain harmful.

The work of the researchers highlights the growing recognition that the legacy of nuclear energy goes far beyond the current regulatory framework and institutional life. As countries around the world continue to develop nuclear power plans, the question of how to communicate with the distant future has become increasingly relevant.

Although the technical solution focuses on the inclusion of physical waste, the project addresses equally important human elements to ensure that knowledge itself does not decay with radioactive materials.

As January’s temperatures hover over the freezing of Linköping, Keating and Storm’s works, it reminds us that certain responsibilities go far beyond our lives and require imagination, vision and humility to face the vastness of time.

The complete key information file report, titled “Basic Information on the Nuclear Fuel Repository in Forsmark, Sweden,” was published in December 2024 via Linköping University Electronic Press.