Between the Paths of Modernity : The European Commission’s Shaping of European Nuclear Energy Policy between 1999 and 2012

Sammanfattning: A powerful symbol of modernity, in its early days, nuclear energy was associated with images of progress and dreams of a better life. At the start of the European process of integration, it was hoped that peaceful cooperation in nuclear matters would bring about lasting peace in the European continent. Today, the idea of uniting European nations through the common development of electronuclear technology may appear odd. Yet, more than a half century after the start of the European project of integration, the Euratom Treaty firmly calls for the creation of conditions necessary for the speedy establishment and growth of the nuclear industry, while the European Commission, an organization situated at the heart of the European integration project, officially frames this energy source as indispensable for the long-term transformation of the European energy system in a more sustainable direction.However, this development of European nuclear energy policy was neither  natural nor inevitable. General European energy policy was standing at a crossroads at the turn of the century and the European Commission’s official position was split between two fundamentally different understandings of the role of nuclear power. Starting in 1999, when the European Union raised the status of its commitment to sustainable development to a constitutional and legally binding objective, and ending the analysis with the post-Fukushima policy response in 2012, this study explores how the Commission shaped electronuclear policy in light of the Union’s commitment to sustainable development. Stressing the role of the operationalization of sustainable development in the general energy sector, it explores how a particular conceptualisation of the nuclear energy development trajectory came to be considered natural and desirable while the other conceptualization was marginalised and became increasingly less relevant, discussing the implications of this development for the process of transforming the European energy system. Drawing broadly on the critical constructivist approach, the study is based on the assumption that the normative structure of the international system, which is underpinned by the industrial society’s ideals about modernity, justifies disproportionate focus on technological and industrial development and exploitation of nature. Because states and supranational polities alike define and redefine their interests and identities within this normative fabric of international society which in turn reflects ideas about what is legitimate and desirable, the study reflects on the critical potential of the concept of sustainable development to transform this normative framework.