Word: chernobyls
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...mishap comes at an awkward time for Britain, where planners are eager to build a new generation of nuclear plants. While Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared last week, "The record of our own nuclear-power industry is absolutely superb," Chernobyl could force long delays in approval of the utilities. Once the disaster became known, environmental groups quickly called for demonstrations...
Defenders of nuclear power scrambled last week to distance themselves from Chernobyl. "The design of the Russian reactor is unique," British Environment Secretary Kenneth Baker told Parliament. "There is no other station like it in the world. British engineers have evaluated this design and rejected it as unstable." James Moore, a vice president for power systems at Westinghouse, concurred: "The Soviets racked up an open car going 100 miles an hour. We drive 30 miles an hour in a tank. We have taken the conservative approach...
France, which gets a world-leading 65% of its energy from the atom, seems to have weathered Chernobyl without incident. The French have virtually no antinuclear movement to contend with, and most view their atomic energy plants as a source of pride rather than a problem. "French opinion overwhelmingly favors nuclear power," says Bertrand Degalassus, a spokesman for France's atomic energy commission. In Japan, which draws 26% of its electric power from atomic reactors and has virtually no natural energy sources, the future ) of nuclear use seems secure. The government of Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone last week stressed...
...Chernobyl disaster is likely to have political and diplomatic repercussions that reach far beyond that small Ukrainian town. When the Soviet Union was faced with a major crisis last week, its leaders reacted in a historic defensive style. Rather than opening up to explain how the Chernobyl accident happened and how the rest of the world could protect itself, Moscow built up a wall of silence that showed a contemptuous disregard for its neighbors...
...Like the Chernobyl facility, the Windscale Pile No. 1 plutonium-production plant north of Liverpool, England, used graphite to slow down neutrons emitted during nuclear fission. When workers discovered a fire in the reactor, they sprayed it with carbon dioxide but failed to quench the blaze. By the time the fire was put out with water, radioactive material had contaminated 200 sq. mi. of countryside. Officials banned the sale of milk from cows grazing in the area for more than a month. The government estimated that at least 33 cancer deaths could be traced to the effects of the accident...