Abalone,rattlesnakes and kilowatt monsters: nature and the atom at Diablo Canyon,California

Abstract

This article argues that a broad cultural fascination with what is deemed to be natural (and, conversely, artificial) has influenced how we relate to nuclear landscapes. In the case of Diablo Canyon, a headland on the California coast set aside for nuclear development in the 1960s, we find that prolonged debates over land use were at first complicated by conflicting ideas over the ‘naturalness’ of an area once used for cattle ranching, then obscured by questions over the unnatural, artificial attributes of atomic energy. Common perceptions of the coastline emerged not from physical interaction with the coastline, but instead from popular debate over the promise and perils of peaceful atomic energy. The article is useful for its exposition of nature as a cultural artefact and for situating nuclear developments within a broader context of shifting environmental sensibilities.