Nuclear energy, both as a weapon and as a productive enterprise, was developed primarily from a military perspective first. Because of that first move, the tone for nukes was set early on; that’s why light water reactors dominate and why there was significant debate even into the 1960s about using nuclear weapons tactically. (There still are, but nothing like midcentury. The infamous “just another weapon” ad was an exaggeration of some attitudes, but it was not a wholesale falsehood, cf. the nuclear shell, plans to drop atomic bombs on China during the Korean War and so on.)
When you get out ahead of an issue, the events bloom into a context you’ve prepared for them; your framework stands a better chance of being the path of least resistance.
Nuclear energy, both as a weapon and as a productive enterprise, was developed primarily from a military perspective first. Because of that first move, the tone for nukes was set early on; that’s why light water reactors dominate and why there was significant debate even into the 1960s about using nuclear weapons tactically. (There still are, but nothing like midcentury. The infamous “just another weapon” ad was an exaggeration of some attitudes, but it was not a wholesale falsehood, cf. the nuclear shell, plans to drop atomic bombs on China during the Korean War and so on.)
When you get out ahead of an issue, the events bloom into a context you’ve prepared for them; your framework stands a better chance of being the path of least resistance.