“It Will Feel Empty, but I Am Not Sure Why”: Belonging and Future Change in Children’s Engagement with Decommissioning Nuclear Energy Infrastructures

Worldwide, hundreds of the first generation of commercial nuclear reactors are currently entering into decommissioning. In parallel, new nuclear energy is promoted to mitigate climate change. Such energy transitions are global but take place in local landscapes, affecting the everyday lives of the elderly, adults, and children. A nuclear plant often dominates the skyline and the local identity, and its existence, disappearance, or replacement, contributes to the shaping of experiences of the past, imaginations in the present, and expectations for the future. Previous research shows a significant lack of attention to especially children's experiences of changing energy infrastructures, and to children as active heritage producers in societal meaning-making of energy futures. This study explores children's engagement with a decommissioning local nuclear facility through drawing workshops and conversations. Data were collected in 2023 in a school close to the Swedish nuclear power plant Barseb & auml;ck. The study highlights a particular form of heritage spatiality. A paradoxical situation of closeness and remoteness implies the industry is both a marker of one's home and a distant fa & ccedil;ade. It is argued that children's articulations of meaning provide a richer understanding of what constitutes local heritage, and that "decommissioning generations" is a productive lens through which a complex set of temporally diverse and heritage-relevant experiences may be discerned, enriching adult-dominated narration of changing energy landscapes.