Nuclear Power in Britain and Germany: Culture, Emotions, and Rationality

Split into two volumes, volume 1 is a cultural history of technology that provides new insights into the international history of nuclear energy by examining the perspectives of six nuclear power plants’ host communities in Britain and Germany from the 1950s to the late 1980s.

Based upon a continuous, qualitative analysis of the public debates in these communities, this book demonstrates that the societal conflicts about atomic power were never confined to the risks of one exceptional energy technology. Instead, they were shaped by larger societal issues, which they, in turn, heavily influenced. Therefore, the local discourses about nuclear energy provide an insight into transformations the British and German societies underwent during the Cold War.

The book will be of value for scholars and students interested in the history of technology, environmental, political, and contemporary history, as well as science and technology studies. It will be of interest to researchers and members of the public interested in the local history of Biblis, Hinkley Point, Lingen, Oldbury-on-Severn, Stade, and Torness; as well as the wider public interested in the ongoing debates about nuclear power as a source of energy and a potential answer to the challenges of climate change.