Nuclear safety discourse in the European Arctic

Abstract

The article outlines discourses surrounding the emergence and implementation of the Norwegian Plan of Action for nuclear safety in northwestern Russia. The launching of the Plan of Action was facilitated by the ‘Barents euphoria discourse,’ which held optimistic views of a general clean-up in northwestern Russia with the help of infrastructure financed by the Nordic side, and the ‘nuclear disaster discourse,’ hinging on the idea of a ‘ticking time bomb’ in Norway's immediate vicinity to the east. The latter discourse clashes with the prevalent Russian ‘nuclear complex discourse,’ the main assumption of which is that issues of nuclear safety should be left to the experts, not to the general public. Criticism of the Plan of Action mounted around the turn of the century, eventually causing the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to designate it as largely unsuccessful. The ‘environmental blackmail discourse’ took over in Norway, with its story line that ‘the Russians are taking advantage of us.’ The ‘cold peace discourse’ in Russia has primarily served to obscure Norwegian motivations for the Russians.