The Legacy of Nuclear Power

Nuclear energy leaves a legacy of decommissioning, clean up and radioactive waste. The problems persist in specific places and for long after nuclear production has ceased. These places form nuclear oases, in characteristically ‘peripheral’ locations, they are remote, marginal, powerless, defensive and polluted, landscapes of risk.
At the same time they are places which play a pivotal role in nuclear policy making.

This book uses research on nuclear communities to explore social and political context of nuclear policy making. In the early part of the book a historical perspective illuminates the shifting power relations that have helped to shape the persistent political geography of the nuclear industry. Although the geography is established the power of nuclear communities has been strengthened through participation to exercise leverage in decision making. The long-term management of nuclear waste remains a problem without a clear solution in many countries.

The book has a strong comparative and international dimension. Unique insight is given through research into nuclear communities and an involvement in nuclear policy making. There are in-depth studies of nuclear communities in Hanford (USA) where the plutonium for the first atom bombs was made; of La Hague the heart of the French nuclear industry; Gorleben, a focal point of resistance to nuclear in Germany. These studies provide a rich source of comparison with the inside knowledge of policy making in the UK and the role played by its nuclear communities. Overall, the book explains both the failures and the prospects for a solution to the abiding problem of nuclear’s legacy.

Andrew Blowers is Professor Emeritus in Social Sciences at the Open University. He is author of many books and papers on environmental politics, policy and planning including,The Limits of Power, Something in the Air, The International Politics of Nuclear Powerand Planning for a Sustainable Environment. In a long career at the OU he chaired several interdisciplinary courses producing a series of books including a series of three onEnvironment, three on Environmental Policy in and International Contextand one on Earth in Crisis, A Warming World.