About the Project

UK Nirex Ltd is the company set up by the British government in the 1980s to advise on a long term management strategy for the safe handling of the UK's radioactive waste. This involves a complex set of issues touching on science, technology, public perception, governance, ethics etc - and a time horizon that spans tens of thousands of years whilst the waste remains hazardous. Working with issues of this complexity and duration in a culture that tends rather to favour simplicity and immediacy is a tough challenge and has involved the development of a strategy that is subtle, complex and long term. IFF are working with Nirex to help articulate that strategy and to clarify thinking so as to contribute to the evolution of Nirex's work programme as the strategy develops.

Partners

UK Nirex Ltd

Last updated: 3 Dec 2011

Status

Drawing on the expertise of IFF member Bob Horn in the use of visual analytics to work with complex situations (see http://www.stanford.edu/~rhorn). IFF have held a number of workshops with Nirex staff and others to gain a clearer picture of how the company is thinking about its challenge at present. One result is a draft 16' by 5' strategy mural, depicting the current Nirex strategy in all its subtlety and complexity and running from past history through the near present to the anticipated (preferred) future at which the waste returns to background radiation levels 1,000,000 years hence. The mural is still in draft form at this stage. Based partly on the learning from this project Graham Leicester is writing a special IFF report on The Governance of the Long Term to include lessons from the mural development that suggest a robust methodology for other long term issues.

Documents for download

Click on the documents below to download them to your hard disk.

Nirex strategy mural

Nirex past, near present and future strategy mural, one of the products of the programme of support for Nirex thinking through the intractable issues of waste management over long timescales

Date: 19 Nov 2007  Size: 3.9MB