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Short abstract:

This talk will highlight the application of the Analogical Case Study method to advanced nuclear reactors. It will share lessons from the research process as well as preliminary findings from analogical cases.

Long abstract:

Promises for and predictions about more “sustainable” futures through the widespread adoption of new technologies are ubiquitous in technoscientific spaces, though often based on narrow technology-centered interests. Rarely are novel technologies carefully evaluated with attention to their social impacts, nor viewed as products of social factors, thus missing opportunities to avert or minimize potentially harmful consequences by early intervention through policy. This applies also to the case of advanced nuclear energy technology, encompassing a variety of new reactor designs such as small modular reactors and microreactors, which is the subject of the current Technology Assessment Project at the University of Michigan’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program. In this presentation, I will reflect on the experience of anticipating the social, (geo-)political, and economic impacts as well as the ethical and equity dimensions of advanced nuclear energy through the analogical case study method. I will discuss the value of technology assessment broadly, and the ACS methodology specifically, as applied to the case of advanced nuclear energy to policy and pedagogy. I will also share my reflections on the role of expertise in technology assessment, based on my personal experience as a nuclear subject-matter expert leading an interdisciplinary team in a qualitative methodology. Lastly, I will illustrate preliminary findings of the ACS approach and demonstrate how inquiry into a diversity and breadth of technological cases has enabled our research team to anticipate the impacts of advanced nuclear energy that go beyond techno-solutionist narratives and logics.