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X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.historikertag.de/Muenchen2021/en/sektionen/re-interpretations-nuclear-technology-between-salvation-and-apocalypse/
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SUMMARY:[Historikertag 2021] (Re-)Interpretations – Nuclear Technology Between Salvation and Apocalypse
DESCRIPTION:Since the USA dropped the atomic bomb on Japan in 1945, the second half of the 20th century, as well as the early years of the 21st, have been marked by conflicts about the interpretation of the (large-scale) technical application of nuclear energy. More than almost any other subject area, nuclear fission has been placed at the centre of various interpretations of world history. This applied to nuclear weapons, guarantors of peace and scientific as well as technological masterstrokes for their supporters, manifestations of human hubris and messengers of the apocalyptic end of the world in the eyes of their opponents. It applied to the relationship between nuclear weapons and the ‘peaceful atom’, inseparably linked for critics of nuclear physics and its application, clearly separable branches of technology for its supporters. To an even greater extent, it applied to the ‘peaceful atom’ itself, namely the use of nuclear energy to generate electricity.
The large-scale use of nuclear energy to produce electricity stood and still remains at the centre of numerous conflicts of interpretation, which, since the later 20th century, have been among the most dominant societal conflicts in the liberal societies of the Western world, while being suppressed in the name of an officially favoured line of interpretation in more authoritarian states. For its proponents, it was a low-risk, environmentally friendly technology that could conserve resources, mitigate international conflicts and prevent climate change, while its opponents saw a technology endangering all life on the planet and emphasised its proximity to armaments, capital accumulation and surveillance socie-ty.
In this section, we attempt to map the many interpretative conflicts that have been and are still being fought out over nuclear energy.
Der Beitrag (Re-)Interpretations – Nuclear Technology Between Salvation and Apocalypse erschien zuerst auf Historikertag 2021.
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