Combating nuclear power : discourses of justice, the anti-nuclear power struggle for energy justice

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 aim to explore how different conceptualizations/discourses of social and environmental justice are constructed through the claims of social movement organizations on both the national and local levels of the movement. My analyses of national and local level anti-nuclear organizations' claims focuses on issues regarding the public financing of new nuclear construction (through federal "loan guarantees" or CWIP charges), as well as on issues of the management of high-level radioactive waste and other campaigns to increase the safety of nuclear facilities. Throughout these analyses 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. My goal is that 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, could potentially guide future energy policy and energy systems to ensure social and environmental justice are maximized.