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CATEGORIES:History and Economics Seminar
SUMMARY:'Growing up nuclear': Childhood memories of nuclea
 r power in Cold War Finland - Tiia Sahrakorpi (Aal
 to University)
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240305T170000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240305T180000
UID:TALK209644AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/209644
DESCRIPTION:In January 2023\, Finland’s fourth nuclear power p
 lant was finally completed after a twenty-year del
 ay\, albeit plagued with system and technical faul
 ts. The Finnish government’s _National Energy and 
 Climate Strategy for 2030_ report sets out their s
 trategy to transition from coal and peat for heati
 ng to small scale nuclear. The government would ha
 ve been further bolstered with the Energiateollisu
 us (Association of Finnish Energy Industries) repo
 rt in 2023 that positive attitudes towards nuclear
  had grown to 68 percent. Yet\, the roots of this 
 “nuclear renaissance” and positive attitudes towar
 ds nuclear energy has not been placed under much h
 istorical scrutiny.\n\nSince 2021 I have been work
 ing as a postdoctoral researcher on a project titl
 ed ‘The Finnish Technological Sublime: Perceptions
 \, imagination and self-representations of large-s
 cale energy projects\, 1928-2020’. The project has
  three focus areas to investigate the memories and
  imaginations of ordinary people concerning daily 
 life close to large-scale energy infrastructure\; 
 historicise the role of democratic agencies in the
  planning and building of power plants\; and to an
 alyse the nexus between gender\, memory\, the self
 \, and energy infrastructure. Over the course of t
 his project\, I have collected forty-five oral his
 tory interviews and consulted material deposited i
 n the Finnish Literature Society\, Urho Kekkonen A
 rchives\, National Archives\, and Central Archives
  for Finnish Business Records (ELKA). \n\nOne of t
 he central concerns of the project has been to tra
 ce the development of Finnish perceptions of democ
 racy in the Cold War period in relation to large-s
 cale nuclear energy infrastructural development. T
 he first nuclear power plant was ordered and made 
 with the Soviets. The paper will focus on the inti
 mate ways in which people use energy infrastructur
 e to perform their sense of trust in the governmen
 t\, illustrating the delicate balance between labo
 ur and the state. In doing so\, I argue that 1979 
 was an important turning point not only in challen
 ging “nuclear exceptionalism” after the Three Mile
  Island accident\, but provided a politically safe
 r context for Finns to express their concerns\, wo
 rries\, and expectations of Finland’s nuclear and 
 technopolitical future. \n
LOCATION:Seminar Room 3\, Cripps Court\, Magdalene College
CONTACT:Dr AM Price
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