Hypotheticality and the new challenges: The pathfinder role of nuclear energy

To those who for many years have been active in the promotion of nuclear energy, the opposition of the public to the large-scale application of peaceful nuclear energy has come as a surprise. The experience of public hearings and face-to-face discussions with the opponents of nuclear energy has made them aware of modes of thought and criteria of judgement which they had not encountered previously. It is now necessary to reflect on these alternative modes of thought and judgement in order to arrive at new ones, and, by so doing, to improve the basis for rational action. Further, it appears that these alternative modes of thought and judgement and the responses which should be called forth by them do not arise on the occasion of large-scale uses of peaceful applications of nuclear energy alone. The new modes of thought which are being generated in consequence of the opposition are only adumbrations of a broader and more general development in thinking about science and technology. In this paper, I attempt to exemplify this development. I will begin with a brief account of the development of nuclear energy.