Word: aec
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Partly in response to such fears, the AEC has insisted on extensive safety precautions. Before the Portland General Electric Co. could start building its Trojan reactor on the Columbia River, for example, it had to choose a site that would remain safe during an almost inconceivable catastrophe: the simultaneous bursting of the Grand Coulee Dam upstream plus the largest natural flood that had occurred in the area during 10,000 years...
...designed brakes for the A-7D Air Force attack plane. Recently Robert Rowen, a former nuclear control technician at Pacific Gas & Electric Co., filed 49 charges against the utility with the Atomic Energy Commission; he alleged that P.G. & E. deliberately violated Government safety regulations in handling radioactive waste. The AEC later sustained two of the charges and rebuked the company on several more...
...days, excitement had been building at the AEC's huge National Accelerator Laboratory at Batavia, Ill. Crowds of curious spectators hovered anxiously around the main control room, watching the meters and oscilloscope screens. On the screens, a narrow band of light-representing the electrical energy in a beam of speeding subatomic particles inside the atom smasher's doughnut-shaped tunnel-edged toward a telltale marking. The room became strangely silent. Then someone exclaimed, "There it is!" and wild cheering broke...
What to Do? Remedies are not easy. Of course, entire structures can be torn down, but not many people want to do that. Alternatively, hot structures can be jacked up and the fill replaced with dirt. But all this is expensive, and neither the state nor the AEC has been eager to pick up the tab. The whole problem is confused by the continuing debate about how much radiation is dangerous-an incredibly difficult decision since effects may not show up for several generations...
Last week, AEC Chairman James Schlesinger visited Denver, where he discussed Grand Junction's troubles with Governor John Love and admitted that Grand Junction contractors, the state, and the AEC share a "moral responsibility" for the tailings. He stressed that the radiation poses no "immediate" danger to residents. On the other hand, he said that radiation levels "are higher than we would prefer, so some remedial action is intended." When, he could not say-except to state that "there is presently no plan to provide funds from the Federal Government" for removing the tailings, which could cost as much...