Ulrich Smeddinck

Ulrich Smeddinck is an Adjunct Professor at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Faculty of Law and Economics, and Senior Researcher at the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) under the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). He serves as Co-speaker of the Nuclear Memory Network (NeNuG) and leads work packages in the TRANSENS network for nuclear waste disposal research.

• Studied law (1988–1994) and completed habilitation (2006) at University of Lüneburg
• Visiting Professor at German University of Administrative Sciences, Speyer (2006)
• Researcher at Federal Environment Agency (2006–2013)

His research focuses on environmental and technology law, specifically nuclear waste governance, with emphasis on:

• Legal frameworks for long-term repository governance (1 million year horizon)
• Public participation in technical decision-making
• Interdisciplinary policy development
• Comparative analysis of "learning" regulatory procedures

Recent publications address socio-legal dimensions of nuclear repositories, including compensation mechanisms (2025), adaptive governance (2024), and regulatory uncertainty (2022). He actively contributes to policy debates on:

• "Learning" site selection processes
• Democratic regulation of technology
• Legal planning for nuclear infrastructure
• Behavioral administration approaches

Key collaborations include the BMBF-ENTRIA project and BMU-funded TRANSENS network, with international conference participation (Vienna 2025, Mannheim 2024).