Nuclear Societies Research Group
Nuclear Societies Research Group
Florian Abraham is a Sociologist and Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholar with a prime research interest in nuclear energy and uranium mining in particular. Part of his work focused on the materiality of uranium mines, understanding why some uranium mining projects trigger public controversies while others do not.
While at Exeter, his research was concerned with finding ways to understand why uranium mining is largely not considered a nuclear activity, even though inherent health impacts for miners and the wider public are now widely documented. He was focusing on the ways the toxicity of these mines is understood and then translated into policies or guidelines drawn by key institutions, influencing the diverse governance of uranium mining across the world.
From early 2023, as part of the Euratom-funded project ECOSENS, Florian worked on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and the vision portrayed by SMRs developers that these advanced reactors will alleviate the nuclear waste problem. He analysed the motivational factors (economics, social concerns, safety, waste characteristics) informing SMR design choices in the UK.
In parallel, Florian has a profound interest in environmental sociology and the understanding of socio-ecological relations within the capitalist regime. Using Marxist theory, he has worked on environmental paradoxes observed in the extraction of materials deemed necessary for the green technology revolution (rare earth elements). In this strand of his work, he tries to explain why extraction operated under capitalism will likely exacerbate the environmental footprint of the mining industry, casting doubts on the plausibility of a so-called ‘green capitalism’.
During his time in Exeter, Florian attained his PhD in Sociology, and held postdoctoral positions funded by the UK EPSRC and Horizon-Euratom. From Jan 2026, he joins the ERC-funded GeoNuFE project as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Research Center on Economies, Societies, Arts and Techniques (CRESAT) at the Université de Haute-Alsace.