Dear colleagues,
On behalf of Prof. Dr. Maria Rentetzi of the Chair of Science, Technology and
Gender Studies at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universitt Erlangen Nrnberg, I
would like to advertise this talk by Nikolaos Olma on "Situating Uranium
Industrialism: Uranium Mining and Epistemic Injustice in Soviet-Era
Mailuu-Suu" to be held on April 8. from 10.00 (Berlin time) online and in
presence.
If you would like to join the talk, please register with the following link to
receive a Zoom invitation: https://forms.office.com/e/L57ae4sWDY
For more information, please visit the Chair's website:
https://www.stgs.fau.de/2025/02/28/talk-by-nikolaos-olma-situating-uranium-in
dustrialism-uranium-mining-and-epistemic-injustice-in-soviet-era-mailuu-suu/
When?
April 8, 2025 at 10:00am
Title of talk:
Situating Uranium Industrialism: Uranium Mining and Epistemic Injustice in
Soviet-Era Mailuu-Suu
Presenter:
Nikolaos Olma (University of the Aegean)
https://www.sah.aegean.gr/en/faculty/nikolaos-olma/
Abstract:
From the early 1940s until the mid-1960s, state-sanctioned industrial uranium
mining on both sides of the Iron Curtain exhibited similar patterns of control
over scientific knowledge and exploitation of peripheral lands and
marginalised bodies. This makes it possible to conceptualise "uranium
industrialism" as a global temporal and analytical category distinct from
other aspects of uranium-fuelled nuclear modernity. Drawing on a combination
of archival materials, published memoirs, and oral history interviews, this
talk will situate uranium industrialism by tracing the
GULAG-to-socialist-utopia life cycle of Mailuu-Suu, a Soviet uranium mining
town located in the southern Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic. Between 1945
and 1968, Mailuu-Suu was home to a uranium mining and hydrometallurgical
combine that produced 10,000 tonnes of yellowcake-a partially refined form of
uranium used in fuel preparation for nuclear reactors and as an intermediate
step in nuclear weapons production. The closure of the combine marked the
town's transformation into an industrial centre, but this so-called
"industrial conversion" was accompanied by the silencing of its uranium legacy
and the rewriting of its history. The talk will highlight the crucial role of
Mailuu-Suu's mines in sustaining the Soviet atomic programme at a time when
known uranium reserves in the Soviet Union were scarce. It will also point out
how knowledge about radiation was withheld from miners and other workers,
shedding light on the social, racial, epistemic, and environmental injustices
that characterised the Soviet variant of "uranium industrialism" during and
immediately after WWII.
Sincerely,
Aske Hennelund Nielsen
Postdoc at the Chair of Science, Technology and Gender Studies
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nrnberg
E-mail: aske.h.nielsen@fau.de
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