Operating as Experimenting: Synthesizing Engineering and Scientific Values in Nuclear Power Production

摘要: Four hundred seventy-six nuclear power plants are in operation or under construction around the world. Are concepts for designing and operating safely sufficient? Conventional approaches premised on expectations of predictability control radiation release assumptions that plant operations closed systems. Field observations industry find, however, periodic necessity to refuel, test safety equipment, continuously upgrade designs introduces challenges not originally calculated. The social cultural contexts markets, regulation, work systems create additional contingencies. In this dynamic environment, reactor produce invaluable data about states entire technology organizational system. Rereading these dynamics as "experiments" suggests an alternative epistemol ogy synthesizes science's values doubt, discovery, documentation with engineering's efficiency, optimization, problem solvin...