Nuclear power plant: West German management of risk - a problem analysis

The arguments concerning the risk of nuclear energy put forward in the press and in books, as well as in hearings and in courts of law, force experts and politicians to take a stand. Usually, these arguments concern the experience that problems of safety have so far always been solved, the high state of the art of safety technology, and the existence of comparable or much higher risks in other fields of technology and daily life. In all, no major progress has been made in this dialogue for years. Both sides repeat their arguments in a more or less stereotypical manner. This obvious talking past each other confirms the above-mentioned thesis that risk primarily has the function of symbolizing the opposing positions in a controversy whose causes are more complex than can be perceived under the narrow perspective of safety and risk. If this thesis proves correct, a consensus on the issue of risk will not be reached as long as the complex causes and underlying motives of the conflict remain effective