Mucilianu Petronela

PhD student in Sociology, EHESS

Postgraduate program: Health, Population and Social Policies, EHESS

Grant from the national cancer institute INCa

Contact: mucilianu(at)vjf.cnrs.fr

Dissertation title: From underground to surface. Radioactivity and health safety, definitions and modes of cancer-risk management in Romania (1950-2012)

Under the supervision of Jean-Paul Gaudillière

The object of this research is to retrace the history of Rumanian health safety with regard to radioactive risk in terms of attribution of responsibilities and cancer-risk management between the 1950s and 2012. It will aim to account for the construction of a public-health problem in a threefold perspective: by placing in its context the history of Rumanian regulation in the area of protection against radiation; by questioning the public-debate dynamics and the forms of risk management under the post-1989 liberal and democratic framework; and by analyzing the relationship between theoretical framework and the practical management of the radioactivity-related cancer risk. To understand the Rumanian management of the radioactivity-related cancer risk, the research will monitor not only the evolution of regulations but also their implementation and their part in the development of an international governance of nuclear power. The research intends to itemize the avatars of the definitions of responsibilities, to examine the debates related to radioactivity-related cancer-risk management, to look at how the national standards of protection against radiation were applied by the qualified organizations, and to decrypt the mobilization dynamics of official and nonofficial actors (trade unions, communities, NGOs, and the media).

Keywords: Risk Management, Health Safety, Romania, Nuclear Power, Cancer.