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Paper short abstract

This paper examines the historical link between the development of remote technologies—particularly arm manipulators and robots—and progress in the nuclear industry by framing robotics as a technology of distantiation that has afforded a particular human-nuclear relations and radioactive present.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines the historical link between the development of remote technologies—particularly arm manipulators and robots—and progress in the nuclear industry. Tracing their coevolution through the “magic hands” featured at the Atoms for Peace Exhibition in Japan during the 1950s, remote manipulators used in nuclear accidents at Sellafield, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl, as well as various physical AIs—mobile robots—involved in the ongoing decommissioning of damaged reactors at Fukushima Nuclear Power Station, I highlight how the desire to protect humans from radiation exposure, especially a series of nuclear disasters, fueled the development of mechanical others. In this way, I present robotics as a technology of distantiation that has helped establish a safe physical and emotional distance between humans and unruly radiological materials. By focusing on the material affordances of mechanical arms, hands, legs, and bodies in radioactive environments, I analyze what current robot-driven decommissioning efforts at sites like Sellafield, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima reveal about the future of nuclear energy and, in turn, robotics amid AI-driven global enthusiasm for nuclear power and rising climate crises.