Gescheiterte Kernenergiepolitik

This study dissects a policy failure that is often overlooked: Nuclear energy policy in the US and Germany fell short of the goals it set itself at an early stage of deployment. Technological expansion in both countries came to a halt before the nuclear accidents in Harrisburg and Chernobyl. The longitudinal analysis employed here examines the evolution of nuclear energy policies in those countries between 1945 and 2016. It illuminates how, in both cases, policy subsystems, which were set up to promote and protect the technology, collapsed. This study uses Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET) as an explanatory framework, which gives the reader an idea of how policies change over time. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of PET and provides a historically updated view on recent developments like the 'nuclear renaissance' in the US and the phasing-out of nuclear power in Germany.