2014 Volume 14 Pages 24-36
After discussing, as the basis of analyzing the present issues, the definition of the essence of technology as the ‘mechanism of production power’, the importance of defining ‘appropriate technology’ in the modern high-tech society as fair and region friendly one and the concept of ‘social technology’ as the mechanism of social equipment, I clarify that 1) the meaning of democracy on technology lies not in the ordinary ones such as reconciliation of interests through the rule of majority but rather in the social process of real monitoring and control over existing technical systems and that 2) constructing a democratic platform is one of the keys to avoid significant risks of severe accidents in the management of a big and complicated assembly of plant systems such as a nuclear power station where it should be quite hard to monitor its conditions in detail without the collaboration of workers of all levels. I further stress that the most important things are to build up citizens’ and local governments’ capacities, not to put too much expectations on the role of scientists and experts, to establish a public participation platform with sufficient independence and to design the state’s nuclear governance in the context of international strategy.
