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Paper short abstract

This paper explores how national nuclear imaginaries in France and Switzerland shape the governance of nuclear futures in the transboundary Rhône basin, highlighting how borders, water use, and place-based concerns structure cross-border debates on energy transition and environmental responsibility.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines how divergent national nuclear imaginaries take shape and interact within the transboundary geography of the Rhône River basin. Drawing on an STS perspective on sociotechnical imaginaries, it compares France’s state-led framing of nuclear power as a cornerstone of technological progress, energy security, and low-carbon transition with Switzerland’s institutionalised nuclear phase-out, grounded in precaution, public participation, and environmental risk.

These contrasting imaginaries intersect in a shared river basin where the proximity of major nuclear installations to the Swiss border generates political, societal, and environmental tensions. Focusing on the proposed expansion of reactors at the Bugey site, the paper analyses how technoscientific promises of a renewed nuclear future are articulated through regulatory frameworks, infrastructural legacies, and cross-border water use, while simultaneously encountering contestation rooted in environmental risk and place-based concerns.

Approaching the Rhône not merely as a physical resource but as a relational socio-technical space, the analysis highlights how historical infrastructures, national energy trajectories, and attachments to river landscapes shape contemporary debates over nuclear futures and cross-border responsibilities. The paper shows how France’s framing of nuclear energy as a climate solution contrasts with Switzerland’s phase-out imaginary, producing divergent expectations and political positions within the basin.

By situating nuclear imaginaries within a transboundary river context, the paper contributes to STS debates on technoscientific promises, historical legacies, and the spatial politics of nuclear futures beyond the nation-state.