This course is designed to equip you with a humanities framework for understanding the social and ethical issues of nuclear science and engineering. The course will reflect on the histories of the nuclear age together with contemporary developments in nuclear engineering in Australia and internationally. A notable aspect of the development of nuclear technologies – both civilian and military – throughout the twentieth century has been the parallel development of frameworks for understanding questions of limits, responsibility and ethics in science. These include, for example, the formation of nuclear scientists active in campaigns around nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation – the 1957 Pugwash Conference for example – to more contemporary frameworks inspired by work in technological ethics and the social studies of science and technology. This course will draw upon key episodes in Australia’s history of engagement with the nuclear age – including British, American and French weapons testing, debates surrounding the construction of a civil nuclear power capability, uranium mining, and proposals for the construction of deep geological storage facilities to consider relevant ethical, environmental and societal questions. Case studies drawn from key episodes in Australia’s nuclear history will be used to introduce you to thinking across the humanities and social science around the ethical, environmental and societal dimensions of nuclear technology and engage you in key contemporary debates.
