Risky Business: Nuclear Power And Public Protest In Canada

This David and Goliath story chronicles and analyzes how a small, under-funded public interest group--Durham Nuclear Awareness of Oshawa, Ontario--mobilized opposition to the December 1994 re-licensing of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. Michael D. Mehta explores the struggle between Durham Nuclear Awareness and Canada's nuclear establishment to illustrate how the concept of risk can be used to understand contemporary political conflicts. As concerns mount in Canada about the regulation of nuclear power, Risky Business provides important scholarly attention to nuclear risk assessment and the role of the public in technological and scientific debates.

Michael D. Mehta is an associate professor of Sociology and director of the Sociology of Biotechnology Program and the Social Research Unit at the University of Saskatchewan.