Academia.eduAcademia.edu

Super-Gau und Computersimulation

2017, Jahrbuch für Technikphilosophie

Abstract

This article explores dimensions of technical non-knowledge in nuclear research, focusing on the reactor safety discourse around 1970. The concept of hypotheticality, which was introduced in the context of West Germany’s Fast Breeder Development Programs, characterized a novel epistemic situation where many questions remained utterly intractable by experimentation. However, the concept of hypotheticality, in this context, also encompassed solutions to this epistemic shift: The researchers intended to turn nuclear research into a computational science, where fast computers would provide the means for calculating and simulating both the complex nuclear processes inside the reactors and the risks they could pose for the sociospheres outside of these facilities.