ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Palomares in the Finnish and French press: from Cold War geopolitics towards nuclear energy controversies

• In Event: The Palomares Nuclear Accident (Spain 1966) and Its International Impact

English Abstract

This paper will explore the reporting of the Palomares accident in mainstream press in Finland and France – two highly different but in their distinct ways central countries in the Cold War politics. Both countries sought to demonstrate their independence and mediating role between Washington and Moscow. Firmly anchored in the Western camp, France at the same time sought strategic autonomy building a national nuclear deterrent, seeking to avoid reliance on the American umbrella. While formally a neutral, Western-leaning democracy, Finland practiced a policy of voluntary self-restraint towards its Soviet neighbour – a policy often described as “Finlandisation”. Finland firmly rejected nuclear weapons, positioning itself as a committed supporter of arms control. Both countries embraced civil nuclear power, Finland ordering two reactors from the USSR and two from its neighbouring Sweden, and France launching a massive civil nuclear power programme in the 1970s, as a prolongation to its nuclear weapons programme.
Against this backdrop of Cold War politics and the development of civilian nuclear power, this paper explores the press media reporting on the Palomares accident in Finland and France from 17th January 1966 until December 2025. The study uses the toolkit for socio-informatic analysis centred around the Prospéro software developed and used by French pragmatic sociologists for the analysis of the evolution of public controversies. The analysis highlights the role that Palomares played at the same time in Finland’s and France’s Cold War geopolitics and in the intensifying controversies over the civilian nuclear programmes.

Author

• Markku Lehtonen, Universitat Pompeu Fabra