The menhir: aesthetic politics of radioactive waste disposal in northern Switzerland

Emmenegger, Rony; Luisetti, Federico

doi:10.5194/gh-81-137-2026

Articles | Volume 81, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-81-137-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-81-137-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 81, issue 1

Standard article

|

16 Feb 2026

Standard article |

| 16 Feb 2026

The menhir: aesthetic politics of radioactive waste disposal in northern Switzerland

Rony Emmenegger and Federico Luisetti

Metrics will be available soon.

Latest update: 16 Feb 2026

Short summary

Geological disposal projects rest on the assumption that radioactive waste can be safely managed through its spatio-temporal separation from human life at the surface. This paper examines how a local farmer in the Zürcher Weinland – one of the regions considered for nuclear waste disposal – disrupted this assumption by rendering the radioactive hazard perceptible through a series of landscape interventions.