Word: aec
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RELIABILITY. A report by the AEC'S top safety experts notes that between Jan. 1, 1972, and May 30, 1973, "approximately 850 abnormal occurrences" in nuclear plant operations were reported to the AEC. Critics use the figure to cast doubt on the reliability of nuclear plants. AEC Chairman Dixy Lee Ray cites the same figure to show how tough regulatory practices are. Both have some justification. Nuclear plants have had more than their share of operating mishaps, ranging from breaks in steam pipes to discoveries of defective welding and corrosion of reactor parts. But all the troubles were caught...
...Even so, AEC Commissioner William Doub warns that there will be an "erosion of public confidence" if the "minor accidents" continue. One worrisome point: big new nuclear plants are designed to be in operation more than 80% of the time, but at least through 1972, were actually operating only 76% of the time. Perhaps the key problem is that every nuclear plant has been custom-designed. The AEC is now trying to standardize power-plant design...
LOCATION. Nuclear Physicist Ralph Lapp concedes the extreme unlikelihood of major accidents, but nonetheless advocates locating new nuclear plants far from population centers. In apparent agreement, the AEC recently forbade construction of a proposed plant eleven miles from Philadelphia. But, charges Ralph Nader, proposed AEC guidelines that aimed to force utilities to build plants in sparsely populated areas have been vetoed by utility executives because the industry fears that publishing the guidelines would imply that the safety of operating plants was in doubt. In fact, Nader says, eleven existing plants, including big ones near New York and Chicago, would...
SAFEGUARDS. One of the byproducts of nuclear plants is plutonium, the critical ingredient in nuclear weapons. Several critics led by Theodore Taylor, a onetime atom-bomb designer for the AEC, fear that terrorists may steal the material. An amount the size of a softball, Taylor says, could be used to make a bomb that would be small enough to be carried in a car and powerful enough to kill tens of thousands of people. The AEC has tightened existing security restrictions for the transportation and handling of plutonium-indicating in the process that previous safeguards were less than adequate...
WASTES. After the nuclear fuel is used, the remaining liquid wastes are not only radioactive but long-lived. Indeed, radioisotopes of plutonium 239 will remain lethal for at least 250,000 years. The AEC is sure that it can handle the problem by solidifying the wastes (so that they cannot enter the environment) and then keeping them under surveillance until a safe storage technique is developed. But, says Physicist Henry Kendall, "the legacy to future generations very much disturbs...