The Atomic Archipelago

More about the book

Finalist, 2023 Turku Book Award. In 1972, the US Navy established a nuclear submarine base in the Archipelago of La Maddalena, off Sardinia's northeastern shore. Italy responded by launching a radiation surveillance program to assess the base's environmental and public health impact. Davide Orsini conducts the first systematic study of nuclear expertise in Italy, examining the technopolitical disputes surrounding the safety of US nuclear submarines in the Mediterranean from the Cold War to the base's closure in 2008. The book explores the conflicts among various stakeholders—local residents, US Navy personnel, local officials, Italian experts, and politicians—over whether submarines posed imperceptible threats akin to radiocontamination or served as efficient instruments of liberty. Unlike visible inland nuclear power plants, submarines' mobility and invisibility fostered ambivalence about their nature, reinforcing the notion of nuclear exceptionalism. In Italy, they represented objects in constant motion, easily relocated at the first sign of danger. Orsini illustrates how these mobile hazards complicated expert assessments and public perceptions of risk, particularly in non-Anglo-Saxon contexts where distinct social power dynamics influenced the outcomes of technopolitical debates.