HIST 3950 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: James Hansen, Nuclear Reactor, Global Warming
28 Jun 2016
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Document Summary
Worse than three-mile-island accident in the us (1979) By early 2011, nuclear stations were to be created. Scientific and popular perceptions can be negatively biased because of events like fukushima, three-mile-island and chernobyl. Opposition to nuclear power has social and economic roots. Nuclear power can be both used for good things and also bad things like weapons (bombs). 19th century, radioactivity and x-rays were discovered-> nuclear age. Then in 1908, fredrick, first to mention the dark side of the atom. Both attitudes of positivity and negativity were incorporated in the society. There is a negative side because of unacceptable handling of nuclear power. Nuclear power had very good press by that time. Late 1930"s, became a possibility to build bomb and nuclear reactor. Nuclear euphoria in 1940s because eisenhower talked about it as if it would be a cheaper option. However, it wasn"t. so the euphoria died down. Age in great faith in both the scientist and government.
