Abstract

POTTIN, Ange. Power and Operations. Simondon and the Imaginaries of the Nuclear Industry. Trilogía. Cienc. Tecnol. Soc. [online]. 2021, vol.13, n.25, e204.  Epub July 14, 2021. ISSN 2145-7778.  https://doi.org/10.22430/21457778.1758.

In this paper, I use a theoretical framework inspired by Simondon to analyze the closed fuel cycle strategy implemented by the French nuclear industry in the 1970's. I confront the technocratic conception of technical ensembles, which sees them as the instantiation of a power over nature, with their technological understanding as systems of operations, i.e., points of mediation between technical invention and the natural environment. I argue that the closed fuel cycle strategy can be understood as relying on an imaginary ecology. I propose here a form of critical epistemology, which I compare with Jasanoff's theory of sociotechnical imaginaries, leading to a sociopolitical comprehension of the social efficiency and motives of such a representation. Finally, I question the complementarity conditions between those two frameworks, one normative and the other explanatory.

Keywords : Closed fuel cycle; philosophy of technology; nuclear industry.

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