Nuclear energy development in postwar West Germany: Struggles over cooperation in the Federal Republic's first reactor station

Nuclear energy development in postwar West Germany: Struggles over cooperation in the Federal Republic's first reactor station

In the 1950s, a small group of political, scientific and business leaders in West Germany were determined to build a center for nuclear reactor research and development. They characterized the venture as a three-way partnership, intending to set an example for a scientific-technical age. The project was eventually carried out, but not without much conflict. The attempts at cooperation show parties with divergent sets of criteria that they only inadequately reconciled, and the struggles display their conflicted understandings of both the public-private boundary and the scientific role. New archival material lets us inspect more accurately the workings of the proposed collaboration. It shows how the conflicts developed in practice, despite all parties' expressions of commitment to cooperation.

20世纪50年代，西德的一小群政治、科学和商业领袖决心建立一个核反应堆研发中心。他们将这一冒险行为描述为一种三方合作关系，旨在为科技时代树立榜样。这个项目最终得以实施，但并非没有诸多冲突。合作的尝试表明，各方的标准存在差异，且未能充分协调，而这些斗争体现了他们对公私界限以及科学角色的相互矛盾的理解。新的档案资料使我们能够更准确地审视所提议的合作的运作情况。它展示了尽管各方都表示致力于合作，但在实践中冲突是如何产生的。