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Part of
Controversies and Interdisciplinarity: Beyond disciplinary fragmentation for a new knowledge model
Edited by Jens Allwood, Olga Pombo, Clara Renna and Giovanni Scarafile
[Controversies 16] 2020
► pp. 29–52

Chapter 2
The Paks Pact

Topoi in Hungarian nuclear energy discourse

| Budapest University of Technology and Economics
| Budapest University of Technology and Economics

Hungary’s only nuclear power plant in Paks can operate until the 2030s which prompted a discussion about an expansion. The first section of this paper identifies the eight most common topoi of the expansion: economy, finance, energy supply, safety, environment, legality, ethics and relationship with Russia. Topoi are considered subject-matters of argumentation with which participants of a controversy convey their standpoints. In the second section, topos analysis is used to explore the argumentation of two political bodies, an environmental protectionist organization and two scientific institutions. Results show that the argumentation style of the examined actors differ in the openness of their standpoints, in their calls to action and the frequency of the employed topoi.

Keywords: nuclear energy, Hungary, argumentation, topos analysis, political discourse, scientific discourse
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The timeline of Paks II
  • Research design
    • 1.Research material
    • 2.Research methodology
      • 2.1Topos theory
      • 2.2Topos analysis
  • Results
    • 1.List of topoi
    • 2.Frequency of topoi
      • 2.1The Hungarian Government
      • 2.2LMP
      • 2.3Greenpace
      • 2.4Energy Club
      • 2.5Hungarian Academy of Sciences
    • 3.Call to action
  • Conclusion
  • Discussion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 15 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cvs.16.02egr
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