The Fukushima disaster invites us to look back and probe how nuclear technology has shaped the world we live in, and how we have come to live with it. Since the first nuclear detonation (Trinity test), and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all in 1945, nuclear technology has profoundly affected world history and geopolitics, as well as our daily life and natural world. It has always been an instrument for national security, a marker of national sovereignty, a site of technological innovation and a promise of energy abundance. It has also introduced permanent pollution and the age of the Anthropocene. This volume presents a new perspective on nuclear history and politics by focusing on four interconnected themes - violence and survival; control and containment; normalizing through denial and presumptions; memories and futures - and exploring their relationships and consequences. It proposes an original reflection on nuclear technology from a long-term, comparative, and transnational perspective. It brings together contributions from researchers from different disciplines (anthropology, history, STS) and countries (US, France, Japan) on a variety of local, national and transnational subjects. Finally, this book offers an important and valuable insight into other global and Anthropocene challenges such as climate change

lgrsnf/Bensaude-Vincent, Boudia, Sato (2022) - Living in a Nuclear World.pdf

Bernadette Bensaude Vincent; Soraya Boudia; Kyoko Sato

Taylor & Francis Ltd

History and Philosophy of Technoscience, First edition, Place of publication not identified, 2022

History and Philosophy of Technoscience, Erscheinungsort nicht ermittelbar, 2022

History and philosophy of technoscience, 23, London New York, 2022

History and philosophy of technoscience, Abingdon, Oxon, 2022

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

1, 2022

Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: shaping the nuclear order
One mantra: never again
Managing violence: categories and demarcation
Pacifying atoms: control and containment
Normalising risk: denial and trivialisation
Timescaping: memory and future visions
What now? Open questions for further research
Notes
References
Section I: Violence and order
1. What the bomb has done: victim relief, knowledge and politics
Hibakusha identity
Effects of radiation and the politics of knowledge
Japan's Hibakusha assistance regime
A-bomb disease sufferers: "Your cancer has nothing to do with the bomb's radiation"
Hibaku taikensha in Nagasaki: "You have experienced hibaku, but are not hibakusha"
Exposed to black rain: "You were in a light rain area, you are not Hibakusha"
Different visions of the bomb, different worlds
Notes
References
2. Optics of exposure
Section I
Section II
Section III
References
3. Constructing world order: mobilising tropes of gender, pathology and race to frame US non-proliferation policy
Dealing with proliferation in Europe
Devising policies to deal with proliferation in "Developing Countries"
Concluding remarks
Notes
References
4. The Nuclear Charter: international law, military technology, and the making of strategic trusteeship, 1942-1947
On the beach
The view from 30,000 feet
Strategising trusteeship
The Nuclear Charter
Notes
References
Section II: Pacifying through control and containment
5. Sharing the "safe" atom?: the International Atomic Energy Agency and nuclear regulation through standardisation
Promoting the atom
Safeguards
Codifying standards
Metrology of the atom
Notes
References
6. From military surveillance to citizen counter-expertise: radioactivity monitoring in a nuclear world
The military origin of environmental radioactivity monitoring
The rise of European radioactivity monitoring
Radioactivity monitoring and the nuclear industry
A participative turn?
Notes
References
7. Making the accident hypothetical: how can one deal with the potential nuclear disaster?
On the hypothetical
Defining a safe design: technical challenge of the early atomic age
Demonstrating that the accident is hypothetical to experts and public
When the unexpected accident happens: believing that major accidents are hypothetical
Conclusion
Notes
References
8. Governing the nuclear waste problem: nature and technology
Ocean or ground?
Waste problem: between ground and underground
When the waste environment is not safe enough
Barrier implementation policies
Conclusion
Notes
References
Section III: Normalising through denial and trivialisation
9. Trivialising life in long-term contaminated areas: the nuclear political laboratory
Containing the hazards of nuclear power
Legitimating high and negligible risks
The age of major nuclear accidents
Rehabilitating life in contaminated areas
Notes
References
10. Continuing nuclear tests and ending fish inspections: politics, science and the Lucky Dragon Incident in 1954
The CIA investigation into the Lucky Dragon No. 5
Inspection of contaminated fish and radioactive fallout controversy
"Ex gratia"
Legacy of the Bikini Settlement
Notes
References
11. The dystopic Pieta: Chernobyl survivors and neoliberalism's lasting judgments
Cost-benefit analysis
Nuclear liabilities
The Chernobyl threat
"Mankind's greatest nuclear disaster"
Notes
References
12. Unfolding time at Fukushima
"History happens to us"
A highway to disaster
Truth and consequences
An Anthropocene syndrome?
Notes
References
Section IV: Timescaping through memory and future visions
13. Framing a nuclear order of time
Hiroshima: end of humanity or new era?
History, memory and utopia
Nuclear winter: between apocalypse and collapse
Conclusion
Notes
References
14. Nuclear dreams and capitalist visions: the peaceful atom in Hiroshima
Notes
References
15. Slow disaster and the challenge of nuclear memory
Scales of disaster
Remembering the event: Hiroshima
Remembering nuclear risk management
Slow disaster and nuclear memory
Conclusion: memories awaken
Notes
References
Contributors
Index

Prompted by the Fukushima disaster, this volume explores how nuclear technology has shaped the world and how we have come to live with it. Multidisciplinary (anthropology, history, STS) and transnational in scope, it features themes such as violence, containment, normalization, and memories.

2023-11-24