In september 2016, Andrew Blowers, Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences at the Open University published « The Legacy of Nuclear Power ». Nuclear energy leaves behind a dangerous legacy of radioactive wastes in places that are remote and polluted landscapes of risk. Four of these places – Hanford (USA) where the plutonium for the first atomic bombs was made, Sellafield, where the UK’s nuclear legacy is concentrated and controversial, La Hague the heart of the French nuclear industry, and Gorleben, the focal point of nuclear resistance in Germany – provide the narratives for this unique account of the legacy of nuclear power. The Legacy of Nuclear Power takes a historical and geographical perspective going back to the origins of these places. The case studies are based on a variety of academic and policy sources and on conversations with a vast array of people over many years.
Jan Haverkamp is Vice-Chair of Nuclear Transparency Watch. He’s an expert consultant on nuclear energy and energy policy for WISE, Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe, Greenpeace Switzerland. In mai 2017, he published a book review in Nuclear Monitor #843 : “The Legacy of Nuclear Power is a book about nuclear waste. But different than most, the retired UK Open University professor Andy Blowers does not approach the issue from the side the techniques under investigation to manage it. His basis is the story of five nuclear legacy sites (note: Hanford, Sellafield, La Hague, Bure and Gorleben) but analysed from the experiences of the communities who live there.”
« The leading line is the discovery that the nuclear legacy appears to be connected to peripheral places – mostly peripheral in a geographic sense, lowly populated, but also economically weak, becoming depending on a from the outside imposed nuclear mono-culture »
Find the full review on Wise Monitor here.
Jan Haverkamp also interviewed Prof.Andrew Blowers to explore the issues of the book more in detail. This interview is a reflection on what drove Andrew Blowers to dedicate over 30 years of this life to the issue of radioactive waste and the nuclear legacy.
Find the full interview on Wise Monitor here.
The Legacy of Nuclear Power, by Andrew Blowers
Routledge, Tayler & Francis Group.
Available in hard cover, paperback and as e-book (epub) : www.routledge.com/The-Legacy-of-Nuclear-Power/Blowers/p/book/9780415869997
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