Nuclear media discourses after the closure of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant: is the game over?
| Date | Start Page | End Page |
|---|---|---|
2018 | 7 | 7 |
The paper focuses on analysis of ‘nuclear discourse’ in Lithuania by investigating the case of media coverage of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP). Literature analysis of nuclear discourse in USA (Kinsella, 2005), France and Italy (Catellani, 2012), Finland (Yli-Kauhaluoma and Hänninen, 2014) revealed several themes in nuclear communication on the civil use of nuclear power. The first theme was ‘disempowerment’ of the public when spaces for discussion and debate among different opinions were narrowed down. Nuclear power is presented as a subject out of the control and intervention of normal citizens, excluding a real participation in decisions about its development. The second theme of the nuclear discourse and communication distinguished was the construction of a ‘modernistic’ basic narrative which expresses the fascination for science and technological development by presentig nuclear power as a part of general technological progress and the development of humanity (Kinsella, 2005, Castellani (2012). The expression of this type of pronuclear discourse could be an attempt in the nuclear communication to tame public fears associated with the final disposal of nuclear waste in Finland (Yli-Kauhaluoma and Hänninen, 2014). By referring to the academic discussion mentioned above the authors of this paper revealed nuclear discourses in the media coverage of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) which was and is still one of the most important Lithuanian national objects. It was built in 1975 and was the world's largest nuclear reactor at that time. Currently, the INPP is in the process of decommissioning and dismantling. The closure of the INPP was one of the conditions for Lithuania to enter European Union in 2004. The closure and decommissioning have been widely disposed in media. Our research question was: What nuclear discourses have been constructed while closing and decommissioning the INPP? Discourse analysis was used while investigating media coverage by 3 largest Lithuanian online news websites.