Abstract:

The paper discusses educational aspects of nuclear tourism and presents it as a new niche of educational tourism and science education. The research explores sites, objects and museums of the nuclear tourism around the world focusing on analysis of official websites and social media communication of 15 Nuclear tourism science, history and technology museums (such as Hiroshima Pease Memorial Museum; Museum “Chernobyl”; Chernobyl Disaster; Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and many other) and nuclear tourism sites (including Visitor’ centres of Nuclear Power Plants) to understand what and how educational aspects are presented in the virtual self-presentation.

The interest in everything atomic has increased upon the opening of the nuclear age. The public now has a way to embrace the history of the atomic age—through nuclear tourism. Throughout the world, sites where governments built Nuclear Power Plants (NPP), tested atomic bombs and where scientists performed research on atomic energy are now becoming tourist destinations. It is concluded that the benefits and impacts of forms of nuclear tourism for local communities and the environment must be further researched. The paper discusses aims of the nuclear tourism and its relation to science education and broader educational aims, its forms, sites, objects and possible educational impact.

The term “nuclear tourism” or as Jonathan Schell (2000) calls “the second nuclear age” in the era following the end of the cold war, the sites/sights of the first nuclear age are increasingly being commodified as tourist attractions and national commemorative sites. There is plenty of studies that have examined different aspects of looking at perceived risks associated with Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) locations and constructions in several countries (Parkhill et al., 2010; Falk, Green & Mudd, 2006; Hultkrantz & Olsson, 1997). The scope of such studies have covered such areas as perception of risk of living near nuclear power plant (Parkhill et al., 2010), perception of location of nuclear power plant (Slovic, Flynn & Layman, 1991), siting of highlevel nuclear waste facilities (Litmanen, 1999), perceived risk of locating nuclear power (Slovic, Flynn & Layman, 1991), local acceptance of nuclear waste repository (Sjoberg, 2004), potential negative impacts of nuclear activities on local economies (Metz, 1994) and the like. However, there has been, if any, very limited work that has done with tourist activities in mind in a nuclear tourism destinations.

Acknowledgement:
This research is funded by a grant (No. 01.2.2-LMT-K-718-01-0084/232) from the Research Council of Lithuania. Its aim is to contribute to development of educational tourism in Lithuania by creating a nuclear tourism route in Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant Region.

Keywords:

Nuclear tourism, educational tourism, science museum, science education.