Word: reactor
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...delays run up the cost of building a reactor, as does the rocketing rise in interest rates on the money that utilities must borrow to build plants. One example: the estimated cost of Long Island Lighting Co.'s Shoreham, N.Y., plant has quintupled from $300 million to $1.5 bil lion during the ten years it has been under construction. Nuclear plants now operating produce electricity more cheaply than coal-fired power stations (1.50 per kw-h for nuclear in 1978, vs. 2.30 for coal), but the cost of finishing those now under construction will be so enormous that there...
...waste-disposal problem is getting worse. Scientists cannot agree on the safest method of permanently burying nuclear garbage, some of which remains radioactive for thousands of years. At present, the most highly radioactive wastes, such as spent fuel rods, are stored under water in plant "swimming pools," but reactor operators are running out of pool space. Wastes that emit less radioactivity are placed in sealed containers and trucked to dump sites for burial. However, some of the containers have leaked, either underground or in transit, and dump sites have been closed in Hanford, Wash., and Beatty, Nev. This leaves only...
...recommendations for better training and closer supervision of reactor operators are worthy, but some experts imply that they do not go far enough...
Physicist Alvin Weinberg, one of the developers of commercial nuclear power, believes that the U.S. should establish a ''nuclear priesthood'' of superbly trained reactor technicians and free them from the supervision of power-company executives. These technicians could shut down a reactor any time the gauges misbehave, without thinking about costs. Weinberg also suggests that the nation investigate whether some types of reactors-the graphite-moderated, gas-cooled kind used in Britain, or Canada's ''Candu,'' cooled by liquid sodium-might be safer than the pressurized-water reactors built...
...bizarre episodes in nu clear history was the 1968 disappear ance at sea of a shipment of 200 tons of uranium. The heist was not confirmed until 1977, when it was generally assumed that the Israelis had latched onto the ore, enough to make 30 bombs at their atomic reactor in the Negev. This insubstantial news snippet was seized upon by bestselling English Novelist Ken Follett (Eye of the Needle), who has processed it into one of the liveliest thrillers of the year...