Communicating Nuclear Power: A Programmatic Review

Abstract

Civil and commercial nuclear power production is a material and discursive phenomenon posing theoretical and practical questions warranting further attention by communication scholars. We provide a brief discursive history of nuclear power, followed by a review of scholarship in communication and related disciplines. We then examine five areas for further research: (a) the fragmentation of technocratic and public discourses; (b) regulation and governance; (c) the politics of nuclear waste; (d) critical social movements; and (e) intersections of communication, rhetoric, and nuclear risk. We provide a rationale and foundation for further work in these and other areas related to nuclear power.