Nuclear Spaces: Communities, Materialities and Locations of Nuclear Cultural Heritage (NuSPACES)

Nuclear cultural heritage is a fast-growing field in many countries due to nuclear decommissioning and its impact on local communities, and the challenge of safeguarding nuclear waste to protect future generations.

However, it is unclear and contested what constitutes nuclear cultural heritage and there is a risk that valuable tangible and intangible manifestations will be lost, and that existing social inequalities might be perpetuated in the process.

For three years, NuSPACES will collaborate with different stakeholders to document and examine the creation of nuclear cultural heritage in the UK, Sweden, and Lithuania.

Inspired by the STS translation approach, three national teams will employ qualitative methods like fieldwork and interviews to explore, first, the ways in which local communities, nuclear industries and cultural organizations engage in creating museum expositions and heritage sites.

Second, we will explore the role that nuclear cultural heritage can play in the process of decommissioning nuclear objects, such as establishing new categories of materials to be archived or preserved.

Third, we will contribute to an internationalization of nuclear cultural heritage-making by establishing a platform for stakeholders and scholars to share experiences and shape a new agenda for this field.

NuSPACES will generate a thorough understanding of the conceptual and practical challenges of nuclear cultural heritage, spread through academic publications and a policy report.