Australia is home to abundant uranium and thorium reserves, the radioactive heavy metals that fuel nuclear reactors, arm militaries, and contribute to the production of radioisotopes for medical and imaging uses. These latter uses offer new insights into the past that were previously impossible to discern. The extraction and uses of Australia’s uranium and thorium reserves have transformed understandings of Australia’s deep human past, but also have immediate and long-term consequences for local communities and landscapes. In this Deep Conversation, we reflect on just how the atom shapes and shares our histories as well as its lasting human and environmental legacies in the twenty-first century.

Speakers:

• Prof. Heather Goodall, University of Technology Sydney
• Dr Julia Carpenter, Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency
• Dr Filomena Floriana Salvemini, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
• Jess Urwin, PhD candidate, School of History, Australian National University 

Co-chairs:

• Dr Laura Rademaker, Australian National University
• Assoc. Prof. Ruth Morgan, Australian National University

School of History PhD candidate, Jess Urwin, reflected on the webinar for the Research Centre for Deep History. Read her thoughts here. 

This webinar is part of the Deep Conversations: history, environment, science series, a partnership of the Research Centre for Deep History and the Centre for Environmental History. This partnership aims to bring together scholars from diverse disciplines to discuss questions of history, science and the environment, and how they shed light on the global challenges we face today.