In search of an assessment of the future. The case of the US nuclear waste programme
Résumé
This chapter proposes investigating the efforts of current institutions to answer a simple, modest, and low-profile question: Does the project fit within the budget? It traces how this simple question is answered when it comes to the governance of a peculiar material: nuclear waste. It proposes approaching financial evaluations that are conducted within the context of the North-American nuclear waste programme as spaces in which the political and moral values of the State are constantly reformulated, particularly in relation to its responsibility towards far future generations.