Relations and Regulations: Applying Norms Theories to Nuclear Energy Regulation After Disasters

After the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, a number of countries established independent nuclear energy regulators or sought to signal the independence of their regulatory regimes through methods like the International Atomic Energy Agency's new regulatory review process. In light of this shift in the nuclear energy landscape, can the Fukushima disaster be understood as a tipping point that propagated a norm of establishing independent nuclear energy regulators within countries? This paper applies Finnemore and Sikkink's life cycle of a norm onto the progression of the norm of independent regulation within the nuclear energy sector from its beginnings around the time of the Three Mile Island Accident to the post-Fukushima Daiichi disaster world. By utilizing Finnemore and Sikkink's model, this paper investigates how shocks like the Fukushima Daiichi disaster serve has tipping points for a norm cascade. Additionally, countries have sought to signal the strength or have noticeably decided not to signal the strength of the norm of independent regulation through a variety of ways, which this paper analyzes through the lens of Dixon's rhetoric adaptations. By gathering data from nuclear energy regulators' websites and International Atomic Energy Agency records, this paper found that while many countries adopted the norm of independent regulation around the years 2000-2011, the Fukushima Daiichi disaster was the key tipping point that drove hold-out countries such as Japan, Russia, South Korea, and more to finally comply with the norm. While the signaling of the norm has continued on to today, this paper does not seek to investigate whether this norm has become fully internalized in compliant states. In the field of international relations, many studies of the International Atomic Energy Agency have analyzed the organization and nuclear landscape through the lens of nuclear weapons. This paper adds to the literature by providing a study of the nuclear energy landscape and key actions of the International Atomic Energy Agency through the lens of civilian nuclear energy and the physicists within the industry.