Aging Atoms: Nuclear Maintenance Techniques in Sweden and the UK (1980-2026)

Nuclear power has made a remarkable comeback, as the industry and many national governments try to market new reactor designs as a solution to climate change. Yet, this contrasts with the mounting reactor breakdowns the industry is facing.

This project remedies a crucial gap in the literature on nuclear safety by studying maintenance workers and the techniques required for maintaining nuclear reactor components from the 1980s until today.

Studying these techniques, I will focus specifically on (1) risk assessment, (2) ´agency´ of the workers, and (3) implementing regulations.

The data for this project will come from interviews and participatory observations during summer reactor outages at the Forsmark (Sweden) and Sizewell (UK) nuclear power plants. This Industrial Anthropology approach will be complemented with archival work in national and local archives.

For the first time, this project brings the perspective and voice of maintenance workers into larger questions of nuclear safety. This has major implications for how we understand nuclear technology and safety.

It allows us to move beyond the dominant innovation-centered narratives of scientific discoveries or engineering features, showing alternative and more practical types of knowledge needed to keep these technologies working.

Not only does this move the scholarship on nuclear safety and technology in general forward, it also provides new policy-relevant insights into how reactors can be made safer and more reliable.