Engaging the Atom Kaijser, Arne; Lehtonen, Markku; Meyer, Jan-Henrik ...
2021, 2021-12-01
eBook, Book
Transnational perspectives on the relationship between nuclear energy and society.With the aim of overcoming the disciplinary and national fragmentation that characterizes much research on nuclear ...energy, Engaging the Atom brings together specialists from a variety of fields to analyze comparative case studies across Europe and the United States. It explores evolving relationships between society and the nuclear sector from the origins of civilian nuclear power until the present, asking why nuclear energy has been more contentious in some countries than in others and why some countries have never gone nuclear, or have decided to phase out nuclear, while their neighbors have committed to the so-called nuclear renaissance. Contributors examine the challenges facing the nuclear sector in the context of aging reactor fleets, pressing climate urgency, and increasing competition from renewable energy sources.Written by leading academics in their respective disciplines, the nine chapters of Engaging the Atom place the evolution of nuclear energy within a broader set of national and international configurations, including its role within policies and markets.
The Barsebäck power plant is located 20 km from Copenhagen and the large Swedish cities Malmö, Lund and Landskrona are also within a 30 km radius. When the power plant was planned in the mid-1960s ...the location seemed ideal with short distances to many consumers in both Sweden and Denmark. In the early 1970s a critical debate on nuclear power began in both countries and Barsebäck became a symbol for the risks of nuclear energy, attracting large-scale annual protest marches from 1976 onwards with participants from both Sweden and Denmark. Once Denmark decided not to pursue nuclear power in the mid-1980s, the Danish Parliament demanded Barsebäck's closure. Indeed, Barsebäck was the first Swedish nuclear power plant to be phased out. This article systematically examines the implications of the border location for transboundary relations involving both conflict and cooperation of those engaged in promoting, building and opposing the Barsebäck nuclear power plant.
This article is about the rapid transition to gasifiers in Sweden during World War Two, which made it possible to fuel cars with domestic wood instead of petrol, the imports of which seized during ...the war. The transition had been prepared in the interwar period and was executed very effectively in the beginning of the war. However, when the war was over and petrol became available again most gasifiers were quickly dismantled. In the concluding discussion, the concepts of head wind and tail wind transitions are introduced to analyze why gasifiers were introduced so rapidly in the beginning of the war, and why they were dismantled just as quickly after the war. It is argued, that the gasifiers were a clear example of a head wind transition, and the gasifier transition is briefly contrasted with two other energy transitions in Sweden that were tail wind transitions: the development of hydropower and of nuclear power.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how competence in the humanities and social sciences has been introduced into the system culture of the Swedish nuclear waste system (SNWS) traditionally ...dominated by scientists and engineers. In the spring of 1980, fierce local protests were directed against drilling teams sent out to investigate the geology of potential locations for a repository of spent nuclear fuel. This demonstrated the political and ethical dimensions of the waste issue and the limitations of the technocratic approach that had hitherto dominated the system culture of the SNWS.
In order to counter this tendency, the government established an advisory board, Samrådsnämnden för kärnavfall (abbreviated KASAM), in 1985 with the task to widen the perspectives on the nuclear waste issue. KASAM engaged social scientists and humanists and started organizing annual workshops inviting engineers and scientists working with the waste issue to discuss its ethical and political dimensions. In the early 1990s, SKB, the Swedish implementer organization responsible for the management of nuclear waste, changed its strategy for finding suitable locations for a repository of spent nuclear fuel. Approval from the local population became a key condition. In the early 2000s, only two municipalities remained, both of them already housing nuclear power plants. After careful investigations and many deliberations, one of them was eventually chosen.
The combination of KASAM's activities to broaden the discussion and the local protests in many communities initiated a gradual change of the system culture within the SNWS. The initial technocratic approach was broadened to encompass ethical, social, and political aspects, and the main organizations now acknowledge that not only technical and scientific skills but also competence from social science and the humanities were of essence.
Studies of energy and geopolitics have been almost totally monopolized by analyses of the largest and most powerful countries in the world. This article argues that it is crucial to include the ...world's smaller and less powerful nations, too, into the analysis. Adopting a systems perspective, the article discusses Europe's smaller nations that have come to depend on other countries for various activities relating to their fuel supplies, and how they have sought to cope with these dependencies over time. It discusses, in particular, two overarching strategies in this context: first, investments in domestic energy sources, and secondly, efforts to cope with – rather than to reduce – energy imports. Smaller nations have often been more dependent and more vulnerable than the larger countries in the geopolitical energy arena. However, there are numerous exceptions to this pattern, especially in terms of the critical hub positions that a range of smaller nations have managed to secure in the international energy trade. Furthermore, Europe's smaller countries have had a more narrow range of methods at their disposal than the larger countries when it comes to coping with energy dependence – but perhaps not as narrow as commonly believed.
In 1900 a Swedish member of parliament argued that Sweden had a Damocles Sword hanging over it due to the country's rapidly growing imports of coal. This energy import dependence has continued to ...plague Sweden ever since. While coal dominated imports in the first half of the twentieth century, oil and uranium dominated in the second half. This article examines how Swedish public and private actors coped with the country's energy dependence. Several crises prompted such efforts. Coal strikes in the Interwar years and oil embargoes in the 1970s spurred diversification and collaboration with other importing countries. During World War II Sweden built trustful coal relations with Nazi Germany and stockpiled coal. In the post-war era fear of the international oil majors spurred attempts to increase public control over energy imports, and a state-owned company for foreign oil exploration was set up. Moreover, during and after wars and other acute crises Swedish actors intensified their efforts to exploit more of the country's domestic energy resources. However, when the crisis was over it often proved to be cheaper to import energy from abroad. Thus imports have remained high and the Damocles Sword is still hanging over Sweden.
•The first in-depth historical synthesis of Sweden's international energy history.•Analyses Sweden's energy dependencies in coal, oil, uranium, gas and electricity.•Explains Sweden's successes and failures in managing its energy dependence.
Kaijser pays tribute to Tom Hughes, an international scholar and a technology historian. Hughes was a unique individual, he shares that he can think of no other non-European historian of technology ...with the same appreciation among his European colleagues--and this appreciation stretched far beyond their discipline. His remembrance will reflect on why and how Hughes became such a renowned international scholar.
The Trail Smelter Case arbitration is famous in international environmental law. Following a decision by an international tribunal in 1941, Canada agreed to pay indemnities for air pollution caused ...by a Canadian plant in the state of Washington. This case illustrates a problem of utmost importance for humankind, namely transnational vulnerabilities. The author argues that historians of technology can contribute to a deeper understanding of these problems, which are often intimately linked with technology. He cites two ongoing projects that study such vulnerabilities. The Eurocommons project focuses on Europe's common skies, rivers and seas and studies conflicts concerning the exploitation of their resources, while the Eurocrit project analyzes how transnational infrastructures have cre! ated new forms of interdependencies and shared vulnerabilities! among European nations. The author argues that cosmopolitan scholarship, a close cooperation among scholars from many countries with intimate knowledge of different contexts, is necessary for studying transnational problems.
Today, technological innovation is often called upon to deliver solutions to the sustainable development challenges that the world faces. The integration of different technological systems is ...promoted as a main option for that goal. By integrating systems, waste from one system can be used as feedstock for another system, equipment can be used more efficiently by economies of scale, and/or the service that can be provided to customers, can increase. Integration of technological systems is not just a technological challenge. Systems integration creates new social interdependencies which imply that the previously unrelated systems lose part of their autonomy. Autonomy of a system is a valuable asset that allows a system some flexibility when it is confronted with changing conditions. Integration implies that institutional frameworks have to be created to balance the interests of previously unrelated actors. Moreover, the technological as well as the social complexity of an integrating system increases, which makes it harder to manage. This paper studies the process of systems integration and its related process of creating new institutional frameworks by analyzing the introduction of large scale hydropower in Western Sweden and developments that were triggered in this complex systems integration. In 1910, the first large scale hydropower station was opened in the Göta Älv river at Trollhättan. The hydropower station was close to the Gothenburg-Stockholm railway line, which was planned to be electrified. The seasonal excess of electricity was sold at a low price. This attracted industries that depended on cheap electricity, and Trollhättan became a center for metallurgical and electrochemical industry. The hydropower plant owners aimed at completely regulating the river in order to optimize power production. However, this implied that the interests of riparians, agriculture, river transport and fisheries would become subordinate to power production. Creating an institutional framework for this integration lasted 21 years. This historical analysis identifies three main elements which enabled (or impeded) systems integration. These were: spatial conditions that provided options for integration, expected efficiency gains in relation to the anticipated loss of autonomy for the integrating systems, social processes among the actors involved. Different degrees as well as different types of systems integration were discerned and the paper develops a typology of systems integration processes. All rights reserved, Elsevier
Today, technological innovation is often called upon to deliver solutions to the sustainable development challenges that the world faces. The integration of different technological systems is ...promoted as a main option for that goal. By integrating systems, waste from one system can be used as feedstock for another system, equipment can be used more efficiently by economies of scale, and/or the service that can be provided to customers, can increase. Integration of technological systems is not just a technological challenge. Systems integration creates new social interdependencies which imply that the previously unrelated systems lose part of their autonomy. Autonomy of a system is a valuable asset that allows a system some flexibility when it is confronted with changing conditions. Integration implies that institutional frameworks have to be created to balance the interests of previously unrelated actors. Moreover, the technological as well as the social complexity of an integrating system increases, which makes it harder to manage. This paper studies the process of systems integration and its related process of creating new institutional frameworks by analyzing the introduction of large scale hydropower in Western Sweden and developments that were triggered in this complex systems integration. In 1910, the first large scale hydropower station was opened in the Gota Aelv river at Trollhaettan. The hydropower station was close to the Gothenburg-Stockholm railway line, which was planned to be electrified. The seasonal excess of electricity was sold at a low price. This attracted industries that depended on cheap electricity, and Trollhaettan became a center for metallurgical and electrochemical industry. The hydropower plant owners aimed at completely regulating the river in order to optimize power production. However, this implied that the interests of riparians, agriculture, river transport and fisheries would become subordinate to power production. Creating an institutional framework for this integration lasted 21 years. This historical analysis identifies three main elements which enabled (or impeded) systems integration. These were: spatial conditions that provided options for integration, expected efficiency gains in relation to the anticipated loss of autonomy for the integrating systems, social processes among the actors involved. Different degrees as well as different types of systems integration were discerned and the paper develops a typology of systems integration processes.
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