Scientists against Nuclear Power: Building a Transnational Community of Counter-Experts in the Field of Radiation Protection (1970s-1980s)

This article analyzes the forms of scientific counter-expertise that developed in the field of radiation protection between the 1970s and the 1980s. Starting in the early 1970s, a growing number of scientists began examining the effects radioactive emissions had on people’s health. Through a series of studies carried out mostly in the United States, they highlighted the increase in the number of cancer cases among people living close to nuclear industrial facilities and challenged existing ICRP regulatory requirements, arguing that there was no safe threshold for radiation exposure. Their work was widely disseminated in the aftermath of the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, when scientists became more fully engaged in public and political debates about the health and environmental effects of nuclear installations. As antinuclear and environmental movements spread across the United States and Western Europe, American studies were translated into different languages and discussed among scientists, political activists and citizens on the two sides of the Atlantic. It was in this context – in the first half of the 1980s – that scientists increasingly defined themselves as counter-experts and questioned the forms of regulation that were implemented nationally by ministries and health institutes and internationally by institutions such as the ICRP, the IAEA and the UNSCEAR. By participating in professional associations such as IRPA, and through their activism in international antinuclear and environmental groups and movements, they were able to build a transnational community of counter-experts and influence the public and political debate about nuclear safety. This was particularly clear in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, when scientists mobilized their knowledge, expertise and networks to challenge the policies carried out by the IAEA and the WHO. They organized counter-conferences across Western Europe, highlighting the health risks of the radioactive fallout, and pressured the European Parliament and national governments to improve their legislation on radiation protection and nuclear safety.