The nuclear issue is highly topical after the Fukushima-accident and since the concept
of democracy is the foundation of the Swedish school, it's pertinent to question how
different forms of nuclear education is related to the democracy assignment. The
purpose of this study was to examine how some teachers describe their nuclear
education in relation to the democratic assignment and to create a roleplay about nuclear
power using the teachers' thoughts and the democratic engagement. The first part of the
study is based on interviews with high school teachers in science studies. They
described their nuclear education and their dictums were analyzed in relation to the
school's democratic assignment. The interviews revealed, not just factual about nuclear
education, but also goals that can be linked to the democratic engagement; students
should be able to argue, participate in public debate and take a position on the nuclear
issue. Some described the factual knowledge as the primary objective, others as a means
to achieve other objectives, such as the above. Respondents used different teaching
methods, most common were traditional theory lessons and discussions. Positive was
that the teachers pointed out many goals of democratic character, maybe because the
nuclear issue is a controversial social issue, which may have led to that it's being
considered a political issue. The study's second part was mainly based on literature and
advice from experts in role-playing. The results showed that the role play, in theory,
may develop important democratic skills and knowledge in students.