Anthropogenic nuclear materials now permeate ecologies globally, causing profound mutations to nature both materially and discursively. But despite their ubiquity, “nuclear natures” come in diverse situated forms, have distinct local geographies, and are made sense of in multiple contrasting ways. This article offers a critical review of the geographical (and adjacent) literature on nuclear natures, drawing out three salient themes — ecologies, expertise, aesthetics — that help make sense of them across contexts. Drawing more-than-human, elemental, and nuclear geographies into closer conversation, the article extends the concerns of geography to the intersecting agencies of nuclear materials and life, the knowledge politics that accompany irradiated ecologies, and the importance of aesthetics in shaping how nuclear natures are experienced. In conclusion, it suggests avenues for future enquiry at a time when nuclear matters are firmly back on the geopolitical agenda.
Jonathon Turnbull (Mon,) studied this question.