Normalisation of nuclear accidents after the Cold War

Abstract

This article investigates the history of governing nuclear accidents in France and internationally. While nuclear disasters posed serious threats to nuclear energy during the Cold War, they have been increasingly perceived as intrinsic and ‘manageable’ events of nuclear operations, a process that can be described as ‘the normalisation of accidents’. This article shows how the end of the Cold War facilitated normalisation, through an internationally shared approach to nuclear safety, based on regulatory organisations, which contributed to displacing the political controversy related to nuclear energy in France and Europe.