The Atomic Archipelago: US Nuclear Submarines and Technopolitics of Risk in Cold War Italy

Davide Orsini

ISBN 10: 0822947188 / ISBN 13: 9780822947189

Published by University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022

Leichte Rillen / Abschurfungen / Risse / Knicke. Finalist, 2023 Turku Book Award. In 1972, the US Navy established a nuclear submarine base in the Archipelago of La Maddalena, Sardinia, prompting Italy to launch a radiation surveillance program to assess the base's environmental and health impacts. Davide Orsini conducts the first systematic study of nuclear expertise in Italy, examining the technopolitical disputes surrounding the safety and role of these submarines in the Mediterranean from the Cold War to the base's closure in 2008. The book highlights the conflicts among various stakeholders--local residents, US Navy personnel, Italian experts, and politicians--over whether nuclear submarines were imperceptible threats or essential instruments of freedom. Unlike visible inland nuclear power plants, submarines' mobility and invisibility fostered ambivalence about their nature, reinforcing the notion of nuclear exceptionalism. In Italy, they represented objects in constant motion, easily relocated at signs of danger. Orsini illustrates how these mobile hazards complicated expert assessments and public perceptions of risk, particularly in non-Anglo-Saxon contexts where distinct social power dynamics influenced the outcomes of technopolitical debates. Seller Inventory # a9548415-5df6-4baf-b498-19d9088f52f9

Synopsis:

In 1972, the US Navy installed a base for nuclear submarines in the Archipelago of La Maddalena off the northeastern shore of Sardinia, Italy. In response, Italy established a radiation surveillance program to monitor the impact of the base on the environment and public health. In the first systematic study of nuclear expertise in Italy, Davide Orsini focuses on the ensuing technopolitical disputes concerning the role and safety of US nuclear submarines in the Mediterranean Sea from the Cold War period to the closure of the naval base in 2008. His book follows the struggles of different groups--including local residents of the archipelago, US Navy personnel, local administrators, Italian experts, and politicians--to define nuclear submarines as either imperceptible threats, much like radiocontamination, or as efficient machines at the service of liberty and freedom. Unlike inland nuclear power plants, vividly present and visible with their tall cooling towers and reactor containers, the mobility and invisibility of submarines contributed to an ambivalence about their nature, perpetuating the idea of nuclear exceptionalism. In Italy, they symbolized objects in constant motion, easily removable at the first sign of potential harm. Orsini demonstrates how these mobile sources of hazard posed special challenges for both expert assessments and public understandings of risk, and in contexts outside the Anglo-Saxon world, where unique social power dynamics held sway over the outcome of technopolitical controversies.

About the Author:

Davide Orsini is a science and technologies studies scholar studying the social, political, and ecological implications of nuclear power applications after the Second World War. He is currently a Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich, where he is conducting a comparative research project on the history and socioecological aspects of nuclear power plant decommissioning.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Atomic Archipelago: US Nuclear ...
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication Date: 2022
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Fine