Professor Gabrielle Hecht is based at the Department of History at the University of Michigan, where she has also directed the Program in Science, Technology, and Society. She has authored several award winning books about ‘nuclear things’. My obsession with nuclear things began as a teenager. In 1978, my family moved to Zurich, where for … Continue reading Field Notes from a Nuclear Nerd
Dr Olga Kuchinskaya, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of Pittsburgh The main question about the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, as historian David Marples puts it, is “how many people did it actually affect through death, illness, or evacuation?” My book, The Politics of Invisibility: Public Knowledge about Radiation Health Effects after Chernobyl, suggests that … Continue reading On the Consequences of Chernobyl
Dr Liz Maly, Assistant Professor in the International Research institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University On March 11, 2011, the 9.0 magnitude Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) unleashed a massive tsunami devastating over 500 square kilometers of Japan’s northeast Tohoku coast. This region has experienced tsunamis every 30-40 years, but the size and impact … Continue reading Fukushima and the Right NOT to Return: Nuclear Displacement in a System for “Hometown Recovery”
Yohei Koyama, doctoral researcher in the Department of Languages and Cultures of Japan and Korea, SOAS, University of London, UK. “I’m afraid to say it, but we love Chernobyl. It’s become the meaning of our lives. The meaning of our suffering” (Alexievich 1997, 215), says Natalya Roslova. She is one of the voices in Svetlana Alexievich’s … Continue reading The ‘uncanny’ in Fukushima’s nuclear aftermath: anxiety-provoking attachment to home
Dr Nick Rush-Cooper, Teaching Fellow in the Department of Geography, University of Durham, UK. We are in pitch darkness. Maxim, the lead tour guide, leads the group of visitors from the front and takes us down a short corridor within the ruins of ‘Energetik’; the cultural centre of Pripyat, the town built to house the … Continue reading Chernobyl and Stalker: ‘Splinters of the Soviet Empire’
Professor Sarah Phillips, Professor of Anthropology, Director of Russian and East European Institute, Anthropology Department, Indiana University Professor Sarah Phillips has published several academic articles about Chernobyl, including research on post-Chernobyl food practices and ‘Chernobyl’s Sixth Sense‘. She has also published two Samotosphere articles on nuclear issues, one reflecting on the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl … Continue reading Poetry from Chernobyl
Nathaniel Ray Pickett, PhD candidate in the Department of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Kansas, USA When the city of Slavutych was built, it was for a very specific purpose: to house the workers of those who would continue to work at the post-disaster Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and their families. It was the … Continue reading Notes from Slavutych: the last nuclear monotown
Nam young Kim, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul National University, South Korea 2016 marks the 5th anniversary of Fukushima nuclear accident, and 30 years since the Chernobyl accident. After these accidents, many countries either cancelled or delayed their nuclear power development due to safety concerns. However, for almost every country in East Asia, instead … Continue reading Nuclear power plant expansion and growth coalition in China
Dr Alice Mah, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK In November 2015, shortly after the publication of our first issue of Toxic News, I went on my first research trip to China, together with Cynthia Wang. This marked the start of a new journey to look at issues of pollution and health … Continue reading Editorial: From Beijing to Paris
Wilma Subra is an award winning[1] chemist who has dedicated her career to environmental justice. She has worked to protect the environment and the health of citizens for over 40 years. With her home and office in Louisiana, where she grew up, she has many high profile cases along the Petrochemical Corridor (Cancer Alley), right … Continue reading Superfund Sites, the Toxic Release Inventory and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Toxic News Interview with Wilma Subra
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