149. What kinds of Knowledges and Infrastructures are Mobilized for Nuclear Renaissance?: Interpretations of Dis/Advantages and Social Mobilizations
Aya Hirata Kimura, University of Hawaii
Posted: February 28, 2022 Accepted Languages: English/Inglés/Inglês
Nuclear energy is making a comeback. Nuclear energy is increasingly seen as green energy that is necessary to tackle global climate change. US and EU are proposing policies to promote nuclear energy under the climate framework and even countries with the experience of disasters are espousing the idea of clean nuclear energy. Philanthropists like Bill Gate are pushing for “smart nuclear.” The reductionist interpretation that focuses solely on carbon emission during power generation however masks various human and environmental costs. Surfacing and contending with these costs is not easy. Many communities have to grapple with intimidation and marginalization from experts, industry, and the government. Moreover, the fight has to be long-term, suggesting the need for the analyses on both the persistence and exhaustion of the movements. STS is well equipped to explore the following urgent questions.
What kinds of knowledges, and by whom, are mobilized to support the idea of nuclear renaissance?
What are the legal, administrative, economic, scientific ways that hide or undercount the costs of nuclear energy from extraction to waste management?
What kinds of knowledge is mobilized to estimate and interpret the costs of nuclear accidents?
How do anti-nuclear movements grapple with the “nuclear renaissance” and what are their shifting strategies?
How are the social movements and communities impacted– from extraction of uranium, discharge of contaminated water, disaster evacuation, etc. —-sustaining their struggles over time?
