The Institute for Atomic Energy and the digitalization of the Norwegian aluminium industry

During the 1960s and 1970s the Norwegian Institute for Atomic Energy developed software that, according to them, contributed to an almost 30% reduction in the Norwegian aluminium industry's energy output. It seems plausible that the nuclear researchers contributed to the reduction in energy output, even though the causes of this energy reduction are difficult to distinguish. This article analyses how and why the nuclear researchers were able to simulate the aluminium production process and develop software to improve and control this production process. A crucial component was that from the beginning the nuclear scientists devoted themselves to simulating and modelling the processes within their nuclear reactors. The competence in calculating, modelling and simulating complex processes enabled the nuclear scientists to develop software programs. Previously, historical research in Norway has emphasised the institutionalization of technical research, and the government's ambitions to plan and direct this research in order to promote economic growth. My case study of the digitalization of the aluminium industry adds insights to the previous research by highlighting the unintended consequences of institutionalization and the government's planning regime, the interactive dimension of research and innovation evolving in the 1960s, and the software dimension of information technologies. I argue that the Institute for Atomic Energy represents the key to understanding Norwegian systems of innovation, and that there is a need to investigate software development as a historical research field, answering to the claims of a "hardware bias" in computer history.