Nuclear Museum as Rhetorical Medium: How Citizenship is Subject to Revision in the Age of Neoliberalism

Abstract

This paper explores and examines how science museums with nuclear technology exhibits and Promotion Centers at Nuclear Power Plant Sites, both referred to here as “Nuclear Museum,” deviate the concept of Modern Museum into something different yet already accepted by the public. Through examining characteristics of science communication for Nuclear Museum, it attempts to locate Nuclear Museum as inevitably rhetorical, not as a warehouse, with noting that it is subject to acting upon audience in order to permeate its mission and message, while changing itself and its contents.

Furthermore, this paper provides two primary reasons for the deviation. First, it argues that the exhibits at Nuclear Museum immerse visitors into the landscape of industrial city wherein nuclear technology is inherently essential. Second, it argues that exhibits at Nuclear Museum attempt to allow visitors to see the invisible, radioactivity, through installations such as reactor models and others, and at the same time, that these installations urge them to accept the risk of nuclear technology without coercion. By critically interpreting materiality embedded in the installation at Nuclear Museum, this paper concludes that Nuclear Museum has to stop its “enlightenment” as civic museum, as it is interested solely in commercial promotion of nuclear science and technology, not in serving to the public interests.