“Everything depends on us”: narratives of celebration and survival at Dounreay Experimental Research Establishment, c.1955-c.2005

Project Description

This project builds on a TBS funded project from 2023 that resulted in a paper entitled "“Welcome to Dounreay”: ideological narratives of hospitality at the Dounreay fast breeder reactor visitor centre, c.1960 - 2006." submitted to Hospitality and Society in July 2023.
The current project focusses on changing public relations narratives pertaining to Dounreay nuclear site in Caithness, between c.1950 and c.2000. The project will analyse how PR narratives changed according to the prevailing political climate and in response to particular factors in the macro environment eg. 1. 1960s postwar rebuild and optimism .2. 1970s environmental and safety concerns. 3. 1980s Thatcherism and Chernobyl. 4. 1990s Decommissioning and post nuclear survival. The project is entirely archive based and drawn on holdings at the Nuclear Decommissioning Archives in Caithness and at the National Archives at Kew in London.