{"id":1496,"date":"2023-06-07T16:09:44","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T14:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/?p=1496"},"modified":"2023-06-07T16:09:45","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T14:09:45","slug":"upcoming-final-seminar-streams-steams-and-steels-a-history-of-nuclear-and-non-nuclear-risk-governance-1850-1990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/2023\/06\/upcoming-final-seminar-streams-steams-and-steels-a-history-of-nuclear-and-non-nuclear-risk-governance-1850-1990\/","title":{"rendered":"Upcoming Final seminar: Streams, Steams, and Steels: A History of Nuclear and Non-Nuclear Risk Governance (1850-1990)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

A warm welcome to another upcoming final seminar at the division!<\/p>\n

Doctoral Student:<\/strong> Siegfried Evens<\/a>, Doctoral Student, Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment
\nSupervisor:<\/strong> Per H\u00f6gselius<\/a>, Kati Lindstr\u00f6m<\/a>, Anna Storm<\/a>
\nOpponent:<\/strong> Markku Lehtonen<\/a>, Social Scientist, University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Time: <\/strong> Tuesday 2023-06-13 13.15 – 15.00<\/p>\n

Location: <\/strong> Big seminar room, Teknikringen 74D (floor 5), Division of History of Science<\/span><\/p>\n

Language: <\/strong> English<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Siegfried Evens in front of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in the USA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Teaser<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is why this d<\/span>issertation will focus on exactly that: the water that runs through our nuclear<\/span> power plants. Water is so important and obvious to the<\/span> safety<\/span> of so many power plants<\/span> \u2013<\/span> not only<\/span> nuclear ones<\/span> \u2013<\/span> that it barely goes unnoticed. Indeed, the history of nuclear po<\/span>wer contains a striking<\/span> paradox. Water is the key to a normal functioning nuclear power plant and to preventing nuclear<\/span> accidents. Yet, up until now, the history of water is largely absent from the history of nuclear power<\/span>,<\/span> and especially nuclear risk<\/span>.<\/span> In<\/span> contrast, there is a long<\/span>–<\/span>standing scholarly tradition of studying<\/span> nuclear fission and radioactivity.<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

But<\/span> this dissertation is about more than just water. By focussing on water streams for the analysis<\/span> of nuclear safety, other relevant elements open up as<\/span> well. While water streams are essential, there<\/span> is no nuclear power plant in the world that generates electricity because of it. Electricity is generated<\/span> because of the steam caused by the boiling of that water. The generation of steam is coupled to the<\/span> sc<\/span>ience and engineering practice of thermal<\/span>–<\/span>hydraulics<\/span> \u2013<\/span> a field with a long and important history,<\/span> dating back to the early days of industrialisation and mechanical engineering. <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

As I will show, much<\/span> engineering and political effort<\/span> \u2013<\/span> in the nuclear sector a<\/span>nd outside of it<\/span> \u2013<\/span> has<\/span> been devoted to<\/span> the<\/span> management of pressure and temperature in steam equipment, such as boilers and pipes. All of<\/span> this was essential to prevent the pressure from mounting too high, causing catastrophic explosions.<\/span> In turn, the managem<\/span>ent of all this water and steam is also very reliant on the material that this<\/span> equipment is made of. And that material is steel. A very robust material, steel is well<\/span>–<\/span>equipped to<\/span>
withstand the tremendous pressures and temperatures necessary to generate pow<\/span>er. However, as <\/span><\/span>with<\/span> almost any material, it can decay,<\/span> crack,<\/span> brittle, and break. A major theme in this dissertation<\/span> will therefore be the continued effort to improve and regulate steel<\/span> \u2013<\/span> and the work of metallurgists<\/span> and material engineers in doing so. S<\/span>treams, steams, and steels; that is in many ways the essence of<\/span>
this dissertation.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Excerpt from Siegfried’s final seminar text, pp. 12-13.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
A pressure vessel at Shippingport Nuclear Power Station in the USA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A warm welcome to another upcoming final seminar at the division! Doctoral Student: Siegfried Evens, Doctoral Student, Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment Supervisor: Per H\u00f6gselius, Kati Lindstr\u00f6m, Anna Storm Opponent: Markku Lehtonen, Social Scientist, University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona Time: Tuesday 2023-06-13 13.15 – 15.00 Location: Big seminar room, Teknikringen 74D (floor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1305,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,171,4,3],"tags":[240,36,167,115],"class_list":["post-1496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-higher-seminar-series","category-research","category-the-division","tag-final-seminar","tag-nuclear-history","tag-nuclearwaters","tag-phd"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1496"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1504,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions\/1504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}