Nuclear energy development in postwar West Germany: struggles over cooperation in the Federal Republic's first reactor station

Author: Carson C.

Source: History and Technology, Volume 18, Number 3, 1 January 2002 , pp. 233-270(38)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

In the 1950s, a small group of political, scientific and business leaders in West Germany were determined to build a center for nuclear reactor research and development. They characterized the venture as a three-way partnership, intending to set an example for a scientific-technical age. The project was eventually carried out, but not without much conflict. The attempts at cooperation show parties with divergent sets of criteria that they only inadequately reconciled, and the struggles display their conflicted understandings of both the public-private boundary and the scientific role. New archival material lets us inspect more accurately the workings of the proposed collaboration. It shows how the conflicts developed in practice, despite all parties' expressions of commitment to cooperation.

Keywords: Nuclear energy; Reactor development; State-industry-science cooperation; Federal Republic of Germany

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0734151022000020166

Publication date: 2002-01-01

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