Opposing Nuclear Power: Discourses of Justice, Anti-nuclear Power Activism, and the Struggle for Energy Justice

• In Event: 1483 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 01. Collective Behavior and Social Movements Across Contexts: Discourse, Demographics, and Policy

Abstract

In the present study, I critically analyze the anti-nuclear power movement (or the movement for a carbon-free and nuclear-free energy future) in the U.S. using an environmental justice framework. I explore how different conceptualizations/discourses of social and environmental justice are constructed through the claims of national anti-nuclear power social movement organizations. My analysis of national anti-nuclear power organizations’ claims focuses on issues regarding the public financing of new nuclear reactor construction through federal “loan guarantees” programs. Throughout this analysis I show how ideas of distribution, recognition, and representation help structure, and are reconstructed through, the arguments made by anti-nuclear groups against the production of nuclear power. Through critical analyses of the claims made by the anti-nuclear power movement in the U.S., as well as analyses of the historical/structural conditions these claims were made in response to, I am able to distill general principals of what could be termed “energy justice”. The identification of general principles of energy justice, similar to the Principles of Environmental Justice, can guide future energy policy and energy systems to ensure social and environmental justice are maximized.

Author

• Jesse Peter Van Gerven, Butler University