I 8/26-28 Introduction to the course and the material

A brief introduction, and some technical stuff. Please go to the web site and look around.

III 9/9-11 The Dawn of Nuclear Power. U.S.Reactors and Civil/Military relations

Atoms for Peace, the Power Reactor Demo Program, submarine reactors...

Readings: Pool, Beyond Engineering, 17-44, 53-84.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech before the United Nations General Assembly, 8 December 1953 (the "Atoms for Peace" speech).

John D. Hogerton, "The Arrival of Nuclear Power," Scientific American, February 1968.

In the ERG Reading Room: Anthony V. Nero, A Guidebook to Nuclear Reactors. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1979.

IV 9/16-18 Nuclear Power .. The Great Bandwagon Market and Beyond

The expansion and "social construction" of nuclear power in the U.S.

Readings: Pool, Beyond Engineering, Chapter 3 (pp. 85-118).

Richard F. Hirsch Technology and Transformation in the American Electric Utility Industry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, pp. xx-yy?

In the ERG Reading Room: The best book on the subject is Irvin C. Bupp and Jean-Claude Derian. Light Water: How the Nuclear Dream Dissolved. New York: Basic Books, 1978.

VI 9/30-10/2 Socializing Nuclear Power: Europe and The Weapons Connection

Discussion of the videos on Tuesday, then into Russian, French, and British programs as well as Canada and Sweden.

Readings: Pool, Beyond Engineering, pp. 140-176.

VII 10/7-9 "Born Secret." Fusion and The "Super" .. From the Hydrogen Bomb to ???

Fusion: weapons, secrets, and the promise of unlimited energy....

Video: A is for Atom, B is for Bomb (If I can get it).

Readings: Exchange of letters in March and April 1977 Physics Today about fusion power.

John P. Holdren, "Fusion Energy in Context: Its Fitness for the Long Term," Science, 200 (14 April 1978), 168-180.

Report of the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission, 30 Oct. 1949.

Hans A. Bethe, "Comments on the History of the H-Bomb" Los Alamos Science, Fall 1982, 43-53.

De Volpi et. al., Born Secret, 82-109.

VIII 10/14-16 Governance, Regulation and Representation

Readings (more to come!):

Pool, Beyond Engineering, reprise... of the history.

James R. Temples, "The Politics of Nuclear Power: A Subgovernment in Transition," Political Science Quarterly, 95, No. 2 (Summer 1980), pp. 239-260.

In the ERG Reading Room: David Howard Davis, Energy Politics, nuclear power chapter.

Possibly one or two other "nuclear history" books .. To be chosen

IX 10/21-23 Nonproliferation and the NPT (the Social Construction of Nuclear Peace?)

Readings: Kenneth N. Waltz, "Nuclear Myths and Political Realities," American Political Science Review, 84, No. 3 (Sep 1990), 731-745.

Scott D. Sagan, "Why Do States Build Nuclear Weapons? Three Models in Search of a Bomb, International Security, 21, No. 3 (Winter 1996/97), 54-86.

David J. Karl, "Proliferation Pessimism and Emerging Nuclear Powers," International Security, 21, No. 3 (Winter 1996/97), 87-119.

In the ERG reading room: Nuclear Proliferation stuff (a box full)

Possible evening session of videos about the effects of nuclear war??

XI 10/28-30 Plutonium, Fair or Foul? An Exercise in Discursive Policy Analysis

Guest speakers: (Alexandra von Meier, Jennifer Miller ?) readings to be supplied!

Readings:

Glenn T. Seaborg and Justin L. Bloom, "Fast Breeder Reactors," Scientific American, Nov. 1979.

William Paulson, "Chance, Complexity, and Narrative Explanation." Sub-Stance 74, no. 2 (1994): 5-21.

In the ERG Reading Room:

Marten A. Hajer, "Discourse Coalitions and the Institutionalization of Practice: The Case of Acid Rain in Great Britain." In The Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and Planning, edited by Frank Fischer and John Forester, 43-76 Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1993.

Meyer, John W. and Brian Rowan. "Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony." American Journal of Sociology 83, no. 2 (September, 1977): 340-363.

XII 11/4-6 The Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall (??) of Nuclear Power.

Readings: Pool, Beyond Engineering, Chapter 7 (215-248).

Gene I. Rochlin, "Broken Plowshare: System Failure and the Nuclear Power Industry," from Jane Summerton, ed., Changing Large Technical Systems (Boulder CO: Westview, 1994), 231-264.

Exchange between Golay and Socolow and discussions on "What Role Should Nuclear Power Play and What Would Life Be Without It," Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on the Next Generation of Nuclear Technoloy, MIT report MIT-ANP-CP-002 (October 1993), pp. 1-1 to 1-28.

XII 11/11-13 Risk and Policy I: Hazards - Radiation and Nuclear Waste

Readings: Pool, Beyond Engineering, Chapter 6 (177-214)

W. Freudenberg, "Risky Thinking - Irrational Fears About Risk, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 545 (May 1996), 44-53.

(More to come)

XIII 11/18-20 Risk and Policy II: Operations - TMI, Chernobyl and Nuclear Accidents

Video: The China Syndrome and/or a Chernobyl video (??) (Evening session??)

Readings: Pool, Beyond Engineering, Chapter 8 (249-278).

"Chernobyl: Ten Years After." Set of articles from the May/June 1996 issue of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

XIV 11/25 and Thanksgiving

Tues 11/25: Social Construction and Safety: Nuclear Operations

Readings: Pool, Beyond Engineering, Chapter 9.

Gene I. Rochlin and Alexandra von Meier. "Nuclear Power Operations: A Cross-Cultural Perspective." Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, 19 (1994): 153-187.

Paul R. Schulman, "Heroes, Organizations, and High Reliability." Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 4, No. 2 (June, 1996): 72-82.

Karl E. Weick, "Organizational Culture as a Source of High Reliability." California Management Review, 29, No. 2 (Winter, 1987): 112-127.

XV Wrap up and class presentations (if any)