Back to the past of nuclear energy Nuclear energy is often thought of as a highly modern technology, yet it has much deeper historical roots than commonly imagined, building on the engineering knowledge accumulated by earlier societies. The NuclearWaters project aims to explore these parallels and integrate nuclear energy into a much deeper history of engineering, as Professor Per Högselius explains. The nuclear energy industry
is often thought of as being built on modern science, in particular the discovery of how to split the atom and harness the resulting release of energy. However, while modern physics and chemistry research has undoubtedly been central to the development of nuclear power, the industry is actually part of a much longer history, believes Professor Per Högselius. “Nuclear engineers and industry advocates tend to talk about new reactors as essentially another way of generating steam. So nuclear reactors actually have a place in a longer history of steam engines,” he says. Based at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Professor Högselius is the Principal Investigator of the NuclearWaters project, an initiative which aims to analyse the history of the nuclear energy industry from a water-based perspective. “We want to look at the history of nuclear energy from a water-based perspective, so we are looking not at nations, but rather bodies of water,” explains Professor Högselius.
NuclearWaters project This research centres around six case studies, in which Professor Högselius and his colleagues aim to probe deeper into the history of nuclear energy. While modern nuclear reactors are highly complex, Professor Högselius says that a nuclear power plant shares some features with other forms of power generation. “With nuclear power, essentially nuclear fission is used to boil water. There are many components
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which are more or less the same as in conventional thermal power plants,” he outlines. Nuclear power was nevertheless seen as an exciting, innovative source of energy when it was first developed, and many countries invested a lot of resources in it, particularly in the post-war era. “Nuclear energy entered the stage at a time when demand for energy was growing rapidly. During the post-war period, especially from the ‘50s onwards, electricity consumption grew across the Western world,” says Professor Högselius. “This new source of energy was seen as somehow different, and there were highly ambitious visions about what it could do.”
all built nuclear power plants in the Rhine river basin, so they depend on water from the basin and its major tributaries,” says Professor Högselius. The question of how different countries interacted to address public concerns and coordinate their work is of great interest for Professor Högselius and his colleagues. “For example, peasants and farmers were worried about what would happen if these nuclear power plants were built. How would that affect the local climate?” he outlines. A nuclear power plant is highly disruptive to the local ecology, while vast amounts of water are required to cool a reactor, another topic of interest in the project.
technical components. For example, the Three Mile Island accident was essentially caused by a valve that happened to be closed when it should have been left open,” outlines Professor Högselius. “ There have also been several incidents where flooding has compromised the safe operation of nuclear power plants.” The serious accident at the Fukushima power plant in 2011 is a notable example, where a tsunami led to flooding of the site, while there have also been several other less dramatic incidents. As nuclear power plants need to be located close to natural, largescale bodies of water, they are vulnerable to flooding. “Many are located more or less directly on the beach, while others are positioned by major rivers, lakes or water courses,” says Professor Högselius. Guaranteeing that cooling water will keep on flowing is the major priority for today’s nuclear engineers; Professor Högselius says that engineers in earlier historical periods grappled with broadly the same problem. “Engineers in China, Mesopotamia, Egypt and other ancient societies struggled with precisely the same issues that nuclear hydraulic engineers struggle with today. They were trying to manage floods, to keep water flowing,” he explains. “This is one way in which we can relate nuclear history to a much longer history of humanity.” Many of the early advocates of nuclear power saw it as an exciting new source of
NUCLEARWATERS Putting Water at the Centre of Nuclear Energy History Project Objectives
NUCLEARWATERS develops a groundbreaking new approach to studying the history of nuclear energy. Rather than interpreting nuclear energy history as a history of nuclear physics and radiochemistry, it analyses it as a history of water. The project shows that nuclear energy is in essence a hydraulic form of technology, and that, as such, it builds on millennia of earlier hydraulic engineering efforts worldwide.
Project Funding
Funded by the European Research Council (ERC), the project is led by Prof. Per Högselius at the Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. It was started up in May 2018 and will be completed in April 2023. Including co-funding from KTH, it has a total budget of €2.5 million.
Contact Details
Project Coordinator, Professor Per Högselius KTH Royal Institute of Technology SE-100 44 Stockholm Sweden T: +46 70 2130944 E: per.hogselius@abe.kth.se W: https://nuclearwaters.eu/
Professor Per Högselius The Loviisa nuclear power plant in Finland.
Engineers in China, Mesopotamia, Egypt and other ancient societies struggled with precisely the same issues that nuclear hydraulic engineers struggle with today. They were trying to
Per Högselius is Professor of History of Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. His teaching and research centres on energy, infrastructures and natural resources in historical and transnational perspective. In Sweden he is also active as an author of popular history books and essays.
manage floods, to keep water flowing.
These visions were based to some extent on the idea that nuclear energy represented a radical break from what had gone before, now researchers in the project aim to explore a different perspective. One case study looks at the history of the nuclear industry in the area around the Baltic Sea, while another focuses on the Rhine river in western Europe, both of which are transnational bodies of water. “The Rhine passes through a number of western European countries, including France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany. They have
energy that marked a clean break with the past, yet it has become apparent that it is in fact much more similar to conventional, thermal energy than people had understood at the time. Nuclear energy involves a combination of different technologies, many of which are part of a much longer tradition, and this creates risks. “This interaction between old and new gives rise to the risks that we have seen in the nuclear sector,” says Professor Högselius. These risks have led many to question whether nuclear power should be part of future energy provision, while Professor Högselius says the wider trend towards liberalised energy markets is another important consideration. “In a liberalised market you cannot really plan future energy prices, they are decided through market transactions,” he points out. “Nuclear energy doesn’t really fit very well into that kind of thinking, about electricity being bought and sold on a market. A much more long-term strategy is required.” The NuclearWaters project will make an important contribution to the debate about the future of nuclear energy by integrating its history into a much deeper picture of human civilisation. If it is acknowledged that nuclear energy is in essence a hydraulic technology, then it can be thought of as part of a longer process. “It’s the latest stage in a long historical process, in a series of hydraulic civilisations,” explains Professor Högselius.
Marine pollution may affect the quality of cooling water, for example if an oil spill occurred close to a nuclear power plant. “In that type of situation water at the required quality might not be available any longer, and the safe operation of the nuclear power plant might be at stake,” explains Professor Högselius. Safety is a paramount concern in the nuclear industry; it’s important to note here that many accidents were not caused by the nuclear fission process, or even the reactor itself. “Nuclear accidents are often related to failures in much more mundane
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