Nuclear revival and legacies: insights from humanities and social science

This conference aims to bring together social science and humanities perspectives on nuclear issues in an unprecedented context. Nuclear energy was a minor topic in previous international negotiations on climate change. However, it took an unprecedented place at COP 28 in Dubai in late 2023. The historical sequence opened by the Fukushima disaster in 2011 seems to be closing - at least partially - as several countries have shown their commitment to (re)developing nuclear energy. The so-called “relaunch”, “revival” or even “renaissance” consists in strengthening or accelerating development plans after years of crisis. In the context of climate change and geopolitical tensions over energy supply, many actors are reviving and reconfiguring some justifications and promises that have accompanied nuclear technology since the post-war period. These include energy abundance, independence from fossil fuels, affordable electricity, welfare, economic growth, and technological innovation, making nuclear energy development appear necessary. However, nuclear power, which only accounts for a small portion of the global energy mix, must also contend with the uncertainties and costs associated with aging infrastructure, plant life extension, waste management, and decommissioning. Moreover, recent projects have resulted in unprecedented cost overruns, while the economic profitability of nuclear power as an argument is increasingly challenged by the plummeting costs for many renewable energy sources (e.g. wind and solar). Because of this context, humanities and social sciences can provide tools for understanding the so-called revival through analysis rooted in different disciplines. This revival both presupposes and engages legacies that persist, such as the persistence of past futures (Koselleck, 2004), “old” technologies (Edgerton, 2008), and large technical systems (Hughes, 1987). We argue that nuclear futures are framed by categories, practices, and materials inherited from the past and perpetuated until today. This hypothesis is thus supported by a methodological commitment to analyzing nuclear technology and policy in the long term. While holding a futuristic promise echoing past discourses, nuclear power carries an ancient legacy that weighs on its future. In the first decades of its civil industry, nuclear technologies relied primarily on an ideal of economic or scientific progress. However, what happens when the nuclear industry is simultaneously faced with issues of decline and renewal? How does it shed light on the challenges of managing infrastructures that are presented as crucial in the context of climate change?