Living with the nuclear: Spatio-temporal entanglements, nuclear cultures, and the afterlives of uranium mining

Abstract. This paper examines how uranium mining in East Germany – embedded in the geopolitical dynamics of the Cold War – produced specific nuclear cultures that continue to shape the present. Drawing on the spatio-temporal entanglements of extraction and post-extractive remediation, the article demonstrates that the ‘nuclear’ is not solely technological but deeply rooted in everyday life-worlds, social relations, and cultural practices. By analysing ambivalences – between exceptionalism and banalisation, risk and privilege, destruction and infrastructure, secrecy and everyday life, as well as trauma and nostalgia – it becomes evident how uranium mining shaped identity, memory, and regional belonging. Particular attention is paid to the role of knowledge archives, nuclear cultural heritage, and global circulations of expertise, as well as the challenges posed by long-term radioactive temporalities.  In doing so, the paper contributes to understanding how the nuclear becomes effective in everyday life, and how its material and immaterial afterlives can be remembered, communicated, and responsibly shaped across generations.

From Cold War extraction to post-mining remediation, this paper examines how uranium mining in East Germany – locally embedded in global power structures – shaped everyday life, regional identity and long-term futures. It traces how people live with ambivalences and radioactive afterlives, and how knowledge, memory and nuclear heritage circulate across generations. By revealing spatio-temporal entanglements, it demonstrates why nuclear legacies demand justice, responsibility, future visions.