Příroda na prahu atomového věku
Nature at the Threshold of the Nuclear Age

The image of nuclear power and environment in the journalism of socialist Czechoslovakia

Summary/Abstract: Based on texts excerpted from Czechoslovak periodicals and dailies of that time, the study shows changes of the image of nuclear power and nuclear energy in Czechoslovakia between the 1950s and the 1980s, as well as the position of environmental issues in it. In the 1950s, the image prevailing in periodicals and dailies was that of harnessed and transformed nature, with the anticipated arrival of nuclear powerplants presented as a natural replacement of coal-fired plants necessitated by limited coal reserves. At that time, there were no doubts about the “cleanliness”and safety of nuclear power plants. In the decades that followed, the strategy of authors, often experts in the field and promoters of science, changed, as the “nuclear optimism” was ebbing. They started, albeit cautiously, admitting a possibility of nuclear accidents and potential negative impacts on the environment and human health; however, referring to accurate data, they were also down playing the risk,claiming it was highly unlikely. The authoress contextualizes the Czechoslovak nuclear energy discourse, showing that there were no significant differences from the general “nuclear optimism” prevailing in the Soviet Union, United States or France; however, since the mid-1960s, and particularly since the following decade,the shape and form of the discourse in the Soviet Bloc diverged from that in the West considerably. In Czechoslovakia, the discourse was monopolized and no texts questioning the Czechoslovak orientation on nuclear energy could be officially published. The inertia of the positive image of nuclear power in Czechoslovak journalism was made possible not only by the socialist dictatorship, but also by a continuity of authors. In this respect, there was never a question whether to use nuclear power or not; the question was how to develop it in a way guaranteeing a sufficient level of environmental protection and safety of nuclear power plants.

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