Paper short abstract:

This digital ethnography examines the online work of an African government’s nuclear energy regulatory agency. It investigates how the agency engages with its digital ‘publics’ and, in doing so, builds trust in nuclear science and safety in anticipation of expanding connections to nuclear power.

Paper long abstract:

Across sub-Saharan Africa, numerous countries are showing increasing interest in nuclear power as a response to rapidly increasing energy demands and the compounding impacts of the climate emergency. While nuclear power plants often appear as (post-carbon?) prestige projects, nuclear medicine brings radionuclides to more everyday scales. As cancer emerges as a significant African public health problem and health care facilities work to expand their nuclear diagnostic and treatment capabilities, nuclear medicine brings radiation – and its possibilities of health and harm – to ordinary Africans. With nuclear technology expanding across the continent, African regulators translate science and policy into action, and mediate the evidence of nuclear science for ordinary citizens. Through digital ethnography, this paper examines the online work of an East African government’s nuclear energy regulatory agency. On social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, these nuclear energy regulators communicate scientific knowledge and agency activities. Translating scientific knowledge is a regulatory requirement, one that attempts to build trust in science and also government regulatory capacity. This paper considers what new types of civic engagement/participation/politics are made possible as African nuclear energy regulators and ordinary citizens interact online. It asks what modalities, strategies, and relationship management techniques do African nuclear energy regulators use in online spaces? In anticipation of nuclear power, how are African nuclear energy regulators building and engaging with digital ‘publics’ and how does this work translate into real world trust in nuclear science and regulatory capacity?