Risk to Reward: How Discourses of Risk Shape Nuclear Energy and Public Perception

Abstract

This dissertation examines how nuclear energy has come to occupy different discursive positions, shifting from a technology associated with catastrophic risk to one increasingly framed as a necessary reward in the context of decarbonization. It asks: beyond changing material conditions, what enduring discourses make it possible for nuclear power to be understood both as an unacceptable hazard and as an energy solution? This project investigates how discourses of risk shape public understandings of nuclear energy across time. This dissertation adopts an interdisciplinary framework grounded in science and technology studies (STS), energy humanities, risk theory, and the history of science and technology. It approaches discourse in a Foucauldian sense, treating nuclear energy as an object constituted through language, symbolism, institutional communications, and cultural interpretations. Methodologically, this project combines historical analysis, discourse analysis, and semi-structured interviews in order to link 5 chapters which trace the historical emergence of nuclear risk discourse, the development of civilian nuclear power, the principal domains through which nuclear risk is articulated, and contemporary nuclear risk communication in Canada. The final two chapters turn to modern Canadian case studies: Ontario Power Generation’s “Recast Nuclear” campaign and the politics of siting a Deep Geological Repository in South Bruce, Ontario. Overall, this dissertation argues that nuclear risk is not fixed, but socially and culturally produced. Nuclear energy’s meanings endure and evolve through discourse, shaping how it is feared, legitimized, and politically mobilized in the present.