Nuclear energy

The mastery of nuclear reactions in the 1940s led to the development of nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. Today, more than 430 nuclear power stations generate electricity in 30 countries and some 12,000 nuclear warheads are in the possession of the 9 states that officially possess the atomic bomb.

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the accidents at the Chernobyl and Fukushima power stations have changed our relationship with the world and with humanity. Putting aside the positivist belief that science inevitably leads to progress, we are now confronted in an unprecedented way with our own vulnerability, that of possible self-destruction.

Nuclear energy, with its consubstantial civil and military dimensions, is the product of multiple historical trajectories, social movements, upheavals in the law and in international and strategic relations. The industrial and economic stakes of nuclear power are constantly increasing, alongside environmental and safety issues (combating global warming, managing radioactive waste, etc.). The protean debates and renewed controversies about nuclear energy that permeate our societies are also fuelling intense scientific and artistic activity.

The library offers you a selection of books, articles, reports, archive documents, podcasts, films, documentaries, novels, etc., to borrow or consult in our reading rooms and thematic guides.

Explore this selection soon in our reading rooms and now online:

• On the Thematic Guides :
  • Audiovisual,
  • Law,
  • Economics,
  • Environment,
  • History,
  • Humanities,
  • United Nations,
  • Political Science,
  • And Sociology.
• On the Sciences Po Archives website
• On the catalogue, the cross-disciplinary collection on the nuclear energy