12.09.2017

Nuclear Weapons Testing, Nuclear Waste Disposal, and the Politics of Risk

Prof. Dr. Cynthia Werner
Texas A&M University

September 28, 2017, 2:15 PM
Keplerstraße 2 | Room 1.81

This talk explores Soviet nuclear legacy on human health and environment in a former Soviet nuclear test site in Kazakhstan’s Semipalatinsk, a.k.a. The Polygon. By drawing comparisons with low-level nuclear waste disposal in Texas, USA, the talk discusses perceptions and politics of risk concerning the consequences of nuclear radiation and highlights interactions between international and domestic politics as well as political and ecological processes. Combining insights from risk reception literature and political ecology with longterm ethnographic research, the talk offers an anthropological approach to understanding different ways nuclear testing as a potential threat is perceived, communicated and addressed.