Territorializing nuclear risk management in the United Kingdom: a political and geo-legal approach to spatial nuclearity

The geography of risk has rarely documented the processes of territorialization of nuclear risk outside of post-accident contexts. Following the injunction of nuclear studies to break with nuclear exceptionalism, we propose to apprehend the mundane spatialities of this industry by studying the conditions of production of emergency planning zones around power plants before any incident. Through a critical approach to the tools of planning and governance of nuclear risk, this article aims at understanding the modalities of its territorialization. To do so, we mobilize the geo-legal methodology. The United Kingdom presents a relevant case study, as the entry into force of a new regulation on radiation protection in 2019 has led to a revision of the emergency planning zones surrounding the country's power plants. Using the case of the Heysham nuclear site, we implemented both a hermeneutic of the normative texts and a field investigation. This allowed us to observe the way in which the establishment of emergency planning zones is embedded in mundane normative and administrative processes. These are framed by law, while being influenced by a series of variables such as the temporalities of the process, the interpretation of normative texts, the interpretation of landscapes, or the anticipation of spatial practices. In sum, spatial nuclearity is also constructed outside of accidental or conflictual situations. (authors)