Nuclear and society
Outcomes from debates around nuclear power and the civil nuclear industry could have profound implications for the future of the planet.
Key contacts
It is crucial that we find new ways to understand the social forces that are driving such debates.
We host The Beam, a nuclear and social research network which investigates the social challenges and controversies bound up in the UK’s nuclear future. This collaborative, cross-disciplinary research network brings together the nuclear sciences with social research, promoting collaboration across industry and academia.
Our projects look to investigate interactions within the nuclear industry, and how it attempts to engage and integrate with the communities that surround it.
The University seeks to foster and promote research in this domain and The Beam was founded to facilitate and make visible our work in this area.
Through this research we can bring new insights and perspectives to the many issues the industry faces. We look to illuminate what it might mean to live and thrive with the nuclear.
Example projects
Projects completed or in progress include:
- A paper on ‘The Commoditisation of Nuclear Power’.
- A multi-disciplinary workshop on ‘Repetition and Sustainability’ in the context of nuclear issues.
- A seminar series on ‘Making the Unknown Knowable’.
- Ethnographic study of Sellafield Ltd. exploring social and cultural features of the organisation that might explain prevailing understandings of risk and innovation.
- Testing a hybrid forum approach for use in a nuclear setting to enhance the authenticity of public consultation around contentious nuclear issues.
- An exploration of the social and cultural processes influencing technology uptake in decommissioning the Sellafield nuclear site in West Cumbria.
- Development of interdisciplinary postgraduate teaching on Nuclear as Social Practice.
- Multi-year investigation into the real and unintended social consequences of the Hinkley C megaproject.
