Research Site: BODA

Situated in southwestern Hungary near the regional capital of Pécs, Boda is a small village with 464 inhabitants. Historically, it is in an agricultural region known for its vineyards and winemaking, but since 1957 the hills of the West Mecsek Mountains have also been the site of Hungary’s largest uranium ore mine. The mine, which provided the Paks Nuclear Power Plant with uranium, was shut down in 1997 for economic reasons. During our research, we learned that uranium mining went hand-in-hand with extensive geological investigations, made possible by an underground research laboratory that was set up within the uranium mine. In 1953 scientists began studying the unique Boda Claystone Formation (BCF), and already in the late 1980s they started discussing it as a potential host for high-level radioactive waste, aware of the need to find safe storage for the Paks power plant’s spent nuclear fuel. Unfortunately, with the shutdown of the rest of the mine, the underground research laboratory was also flooded—a painful loss for Hungary’s scientific community.

In spite of this setback, exploratory test drilling of the Boda Claystone Formation continued through the 1990s and 2000s until today, and since 1999 the Public Limited Company for Radioactive Waste Management (PURAM) officially considers the BCF a potentially suitable rock formation for safely hosting high-level nuclear waste. As one of the leading geologists working at PURAM explained to us: the emphasis is on “suitable”— they are not looking for the “ideal” rock formation but rather the rock formation about which they have the most knowledge, in order to ensure safe storage conditions.

Boda’s long-standing mayor Győző Kovács, in office since 1990, has been instrumental in making these investigations possible and forming an alliance with neighboring villages to claim compensation funding from the government. He stresses that only test drillings are taking place in Boda, and therefore any concerns or protests are unfounded as the repository will be located elsewhere; it needs to be built in an area where no drilling has happened and the rock formation is intact. This particular “not in my backyard” attitude is not shared by the Pécs-based environmental activist group Green Youth, who claim that the research concerning the BCF is not convincing enough and that another question has to be addressed: what if there is no suitable storage site for high-level radioactive waste within Hungary’s national borders? Geologists still advocate for investigating the Boda Claystone Formation, even though doubts about its suitability have also surfaced from within the scientific community. Their main concern, however, is that the exploratory drilling is stalling due to funding issues and diverging political interests, thus impeding further research.

Currently, the blue construction containers dotting the outskirts of Boda testify to the momen- tary suspension of investigations. The information park set up by PURAM to communicate about the storage
of high-level nuclear waste is undergoing renovations. Within the park, the Boda Claystone Formation has been exposed for visitors to see. At this spot, we re- alized the field trip led by artists Csilla Nagy and Rita Süveges, with the participation of an activist from Green Youth, a former uranium miner, a hydrogeologist from PURAM, and the mayor of Boda, who invited us to cap off the evening with his “Atomic Cuvée,” symbolically interweaving the diverse histories and possible futures of the region.