Calendario eventi
a Venerdì 12 Giugno 2026
International Conference organized in the framework of the DENUCLIT and the GeoNuFE research projects
11th – 12th June 2026, Turin, Italy
The DENUCLIT (Nuclear Deindustrialization. Human capital, business restructuring and environmental
change in Italy, 1971-1999, PRIN Progetto di interesse nazionale 2022, dir. Barbara Curli) and the
GeoNuFE (Critical Geopolitics of Nuclear Fuel Supply in Europe, ERC Starting Grant 2025, dir. Teva
Meyer) projects invite the submission of abstracts for an international conference on the “History and
Geopolitics of Nuclear Deindustrialization” to be held in Turin on 11th-12th June 2026. The conference
seeks to bring historical and geopolitical perspectives into conversation with a wider set of approaches,
including socio-environmental, cultural, anthropological, and economic analyses, in order to explore the
multiple dimensions of nuclear deindustrialization across time and space.
In recent years, nuclear energy has returned to global debates as a possible response to climate
change and concerns about energy security. At the same time, many countries, especially in Western
Europe and the United States, have been dealing with the long and complicated consequences of nuclear
decline and industrial restructuring. This contrast between renewed interest and prolonged contraction
gives us a sense of the deep asymmetries that now shape the nuclear landscape, and it raises questions about
how we got here, historically and politically. It is along this line of inquiry that the conference is situated.
We bring together the perspectives of two ongoing projects: DENUCLIT, which looks at the
historical and industrial transformations linked to nuclear closures in Italy, in conversation with a broader
European and global framework of deindustrialization; and GeoNuFE, which examines how the geopolitics
of nuclear fuel supply is changing and how power is being redistributed across the sector. By putting these
perspectives into dialogue, the conference aims to better understand how nuclear industries are dismantled,
reorganized, or, in some cases, deliberately kept alive, and how these processes intersect with shifting
geopolitical, social, environmental, and cultural dynamics. These developments resonate with broader
debates on decommissioning and post-nuclear landscapes, heritage, memory, and the long-term
management of the sites and materials left behind, showing how nuclear activity continues to carry
economic, technological, and political significance beyond power production. This continuity underscores
the enduring and transnational nature of a “residual” nuclear economy.
Understanding how nuclear activities persist after reactor shutdowns also helps us make better sense of today’s geopolitics of nuclear fuel. The gradual contraction of the nuclear market over several decades, through mine closures or mothballing; the downsizing of conversion and enrichment facilities, and the loss of industrial capacity in many Western countries, has led to a fuel cycle that is now strongly concentrated in the hands of few actors, creating structural vulnerabilities. The current dependencies that shape the geopolitics of nuclear fuel are not new: they stem directly from earlier phases of industrial decline, disinvestment, and policy decisions that reduced domestic capabilities. In other words, today’s geopolitical tensions around supply security are inseparable from the long-term history of how the nuclear sector was dismantled, reorganized, or allowed to contract.
By combining historical, geopolitical, socio-environmental, and cultural approaches, the conference aims to explore the multifaceted dimension of nuclear deindustrialization. We welcome abstracts that engage with these themes in different national and regional contexts and that consider the longue durée of nuclear infrastructures, from their construction and operation to their dismantling and afterlives, as well as the evolving geopolitics of the nuclear fuel cycle today.
Possible topics to be discussed as part of the conference’s thematic include, but are not limited to:
· industrial and technological restructuring
· business history and the evolution and recomposition of labor
· financial and legal aspects of nuclear deindustrialization
· safety, health and radioprotection
· the architectures of nuclear decommissioning
· socio-environmental policies, legacies and futures of nuclear sites
· community experiences, mobilization and socio-technical imaginaries
· the cultural and material heritage and the politics of memory
· the political geographies of nuclear infrastructures, and supply chains
· international, national, regional and local forms of governance
· the geopolitics of nuclear materials re-usage and recycling
· circulation of knowledge and expertise
· evolution of approaches and technologies for radioactive waste management
Deadline & how to apply
Please send an abstract by February 28th, 2026 to the following email address:
Abstracts (in word) must include: a title, full name, institution, email address of the author(s), from 3 to 5 keywords, a text not exceeding 300 words, and references.
Notifications of acceptance will be communicated via e-mail to all applicants by March 30th, 2026. If accepted, participants are expected to expand their abstracts into longer texts of max. 1,000 words and hand them in by May 31st, 2026.
Other info, Links & conditions
The conference will be held in English and in person only.
Accommodation and meals will be provided by the conference organizers. Transportation expenses will not be covered.
May you have further questions, please contact:
Project websites:
DENUCLIT: https://www.denuclit.unito.it/home
GeoNuFE: https://geonufe.eu/
Scientific and Organising Committee
Elisabetta Bini, Università di Napoli Federico II
Adna Čamdžić, Università degli Studi di Torino
Barbara Curli, Università degli Studi di Torino
Mauro Elli, Università degli Studi di Milano Statale
Teva Meyer, Université de Haute-Alsace
Gabriella Rago, Università degli Studi di Torino