ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief discursive history of nuclear power, followed by a review of scholarship in communication and related disciplines. Nuclear power involves a complex discursive terrain encompassing competing promotional and oppositional narratives; ambiguous relationships to problems of climate change and energy security; and political challenges related to managing and governing a high-risk technology. The chapter then examines five areas for further research: the fragmentation of technocratic and public discourses; regulation and governance; the politics of nuclear waste; critical social movements; and intersections of communication, rhetoric, and nuclear risk. It also focuses on processes related to commercial or civilian nuclear electricity production, and argues that the institutional, political, and material implications of nuclear power are substantial, as are its implications for communication theory and practice. Finally, the chapter addresses certain perceptions regarding nuclear power that may have established some traction in public discourse and within the communication discipline.
