Ways of projecting and shaping futures are at the heart of contemporary talk of a coming “nuclear renaissance.” This Special Project brings into conversation leading figures from humanistic and social-scientific study of science and technology with colleagues from science and engineering and from policy and advocacy groups. It spotlights the analytical tools used in this domain, ranging from performance assessment (nuclear engineering) to surveys (sociology) to studies of nuclear imaginaries (cultural studies of science).
2010 Workshop
The first event in this Special Project was the 2010 Workshop on Nuclear Futures, held at Berkeley on December 10th-11th.
The purpose of the workshop was not to identify a right nuclear future, but to better articulate the framework of debate. The speakers examined how experiences, strategies, toolkits, and practices structure conceptions surrounding the possibility of a nuclear renaissance. They examined the bases on which projections of a nuclear future are grounded and offered. Furthermore, in addition to highlighting the methodology of their respective disciplines, they examined the limits to their approaches and projections. Read the program, or find out more about the speakers.