Big Science and Small Budgets - The Ups and Downs of Nuclear Fusion Research. André Gazsó, Felix Schinner, Wolfgang Rehm, and Wolfgang Kromp, Institute of Risk Research, University of Vienna, Tuerkenschanzstrasse 17/8, A-1180 Vienna

The EU-program SERF (Socio-economical Research on Fusion) was initiated in 1997 to supplement technical research on fusion. The program consists of five macrotasks analyzing the feasibility of fusion as potential energy option in the future (long time scenario), production and external costs, and special problems large technical systems (LTS) are enfacing confronted with public opinion. The IRF-team is focussing on social and political aspects of fusion research, such as the relation of fusion as a complex, centralizing technology and democracy, which entails the role of human autonomy and accountability within complex technological environments.

One of the topics is to analyze the press coverage of fusion and the modifications of fusion research programs since their beginnings in the early fifties and sixties. Whereas fusion was strongly supported during the oil shock years as new option to gain energy independence by the end of the century (as mirrored by essential increases of DOE and Euratom budgets), the recent lamenting of energy shortages is not accompanied by a similar support for advanced nuclear technologies. Our assumption is that fusion research suffers from several short-comings, which are both internal and external failures of portraying science to the public. Furthermore, there is the substantial question, how to sustain a long-term research program within a short-term economy. The consequence is the inability of nuclear high-tech science - due to more or less inflexible hierarchical structures - to deal with the necessities of democratic and liberal systems, as well as with the effects of global competition.

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