A hot commodity: uranium and containment in the nuclear state

Since taking centre stage in the development of the atomic bomb, uranium has been enveloped in practices and discourses of secrecy and (in)security that are material and psychosocial. The physical properties of uranium, notably its radioactivity invisible and imperceptible to ordinary senses - have been used to justify regimes of secrecy and security. Yet these properties also contribute to a political, material, and corporeal insecurity. Of note, the secrecy and security surrounding uranium, and the accompanying insecurity, did not end with the Cold War. These trappings of uranium have remained evident in the political economy of uranium refining in Canada, yet their repercussions have predominantly manifested at the local scale in the small communities, such as Port Hope, that host Canada's nuclear facilities. In A Hot Commodity: Uranium and Containment in the Nuclear State, I analyze how the state-owned and operated Eldorado uranium refinery protected its own interests in the midst of the discovery that the refinery had contaminated the small town of Port Hope with radioactive waste. I assess how Eldorado strategically drew on its powers and privileges as a federal crown corporation to secure its own political and economic position while foreclosing dissent. In the midst of contestation over the waste, Eldorado undertook strategic measures to ensure its own legitimacy as the cornerstone of Canada's national uranium industry so that the refinery could expand and intensify its operations in Port Hope despite being implicated in contaminating the town. As the uranium refinery was owned and operated as a federal crown corporation between 1944 and 1988, this lens enables a historically grounded analysis of the relationship between the state and civil society, and how uneven power relations are maintained over long periods of time. My analysis of Eldorado shows how the nuclear state is conspicuously local - it was largely built through this one uranium refinery - and in many ways, this process transformed this community into a nuclear landscape characterized by dispossession, insecurity, anxiety, uncertainty, and sacrifice. (author)