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Exploring the Science, Politics and Ethics of Nuclear Technology Assessment

21/02/2012 - 22/02/2012
University Foundation
Room Emile Francqui
Egmontstraat 11
Brussel
Engels

Overzicht

Due to the specific character of its associated risk, the societal justification of nuclear energy technology is troubled by moral pluralism. That is: even if we would all agree on the scientific knowledge base for the assessment of the risk, opinions would still differ on its acceptability. Science may thus inform us about the technical and societal aspects of options, it cannot instruct or clarify the choice to make. The matter becomes even more complex if we take into account the fact that science can only deliver evidence to a certain extent. Despite the maturity of nuclear science & engineering, the existence of inherent uncertainties, unknowns and unknowables puts fundamental limits to understanding and forecasting technological, biological and social phenomena in the interest of risk assessment. Last but not least, we have to accept that three important factors remain to a large degree beyond control. These are human behaviour, nature and time…

The course will focus on the science, politics and ethics of nuclear technology assessment by starting from an analysis of the complexity of nuclear risk governance and by linking these insights to the question of how approaches to knowledge generation and decision making could ‘generate societal trust’. The idea is that this trust would need to be generated ‘by method instead of proof’, regardless of whether the outcome of decision making would be acceptance or rejection of the technology. The overall aim of the course is to provide better insight into the complexity of nuclear risk governance and to discuss as well the moral foundations for risk governance as the practical implications for research and policy.

Onderwerpen

See the attached programme

Doelpubliek

The course is organised by the Science & Technology Studies Unit and the Belgian Academy for Nuclear Science and Technology, both part of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK•CEN. Lectures will be given by invited speakers who are chosen for their experiences with and contributions to the intellectual debate on (nuclear) technology assessment rather than on the basis of their specific views on nuclear. The target audiences of the course are professionals who are active in the broad field of nuclear energy R&D, engineering, management and policy and who have an interest in discussing critical perspectives on energy policy and nuclear technology assessment.

Programma

Het volledige programma kan hier worden gedownload:

NTA Course invitation and programme.pdf

Voorkennis

There is no foreknowledge required.

Preparation

There is no preparation required.

Leerdoelen

The learning outcomes are not yet defined.

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