May 03 2019 80 mins
What came first – the nuclear power plant or the nuclear bomb? Do you fear nuclear power(s)? What was our experience of encountering coal? What is the relationship between energy consumption and well-being? What drives demand? Is more (always) better? Why did human population grow steeply from c. 1698? Where did the muscular Uncle Sam come from? Does pollution kill more people than wars? Is nuclearization value-neutral? How are human beings a part of nuclear power systems? How does (any) technology become a political or cultural artefact? What was the first official publicity like? Can ‘something’ be an instrument of peace ‘and’ an absolute weapon of destruction? Is nuclear energy ‘sublime’? Is it democratic? Is it green? Why aren’t nuclear power plants located within cities if they are not risky? Do more plants risk more weapons? Where does spent fuel go? Can the political economy of a nuclear power plant be separated from its engineering? Why the ‘secrecy’ (?)? What is the future of nuclearity? Is industrialization necessary? Will we beam energy down from satellites? &, will we have to continue to live with (military) radioactivity? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from nuclear engineering (Prof. R. B. Grover, HBNI, Mumbai), development studies (Dr. Manu V. Mathai, Azim Premji University, Bangalore), & cultural studies (Dr. Dibyadyuti Roy, IIM Indore, Indore). Listen in...