Aurélien Portelli

What Cultural Objects Say About Nuclear Accidents and Their Way of Depicting a Controversial Industry

Nuclear accidents have prompted the creation of numerous cultural objects such as novels, films, cartoons, or posters. Here we show what these objects can teach us about the social representations of nuclear power. The object is both a product and a representation. It can influence attitudes and partially contributes to the cognitive context of controversy about atomic power. Consequently, it leads to diverse practices defined by the interests and goals of the groups that own it. French documentaries on Fukushima Daiichi constitute a coherent corpus that makes it possible to identify both ruptures and continuity in the story that is told. These films borrow from the symbols, myths, and analogies provoked by Chernobyl to evoke Fukushima. They also show that the accident ends the myth of ‘Soviet neglect’ and creates a form of social resilience that has changed the way the Japanese population is seen in France.

What can we learn about “engineering thinking in extreme situations” from the testimony by the Fukushima Dai Ichi plant manager?

The concept of engineering thinking in emergency situations addresses an epistemological gap in the field of safety sciences, following the accident at Fukushima Dai Ichi. Institutional bodies have not grasped the need to study the conditions in which the plant’s teams had to work to maintain the integrity of the facilities. However, an understanding of the situation as it unfolded is crucial to understanding the deci-sions taken by the actors during the crisis. It is clear that the description of the accident and its representa-tion, as it is presented in reports prepared by various official agencies fails in this respect. The testimony of Masao Yoshida, director of the plant, helps to fill in some gaps. Transcripts of his testimony provide detailed information that is key to understanding the sequence of events triggered by the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March, 2011. This article shows the importance of the study of his testimony and highlights the relationship between the management of the nuclear accident and the concept of engineering thinking in emergency situations.