Word: reactors
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...building new ones, the nation cannot let the debate end there. Three Mile Island vividly illustrated the dangers of reliance on nuclear power. Disaster was avoided, but probably not by much. Experts who never considered the possibility that a hydrogen bubble would hinder attempts to shut down a balking reactor can no longer contend that the chances of serious accident are so tiny as to be totally discounted. The radiation released was well below the Government's standards for safety, but cancer rates among people exposed to fallout from the atomic-bomb tests of the 1950s and shipyard workers...
...disposal is found. Nuclear plants are built to operate for about 35 years. By the year 2000 some worn-out ones will either have to be torn down or sealed up so that no radiation escapes. No one yet knows how to safely dismantle or seal off a reactor, though Three Mile Island may provide some insights about that...
REGULATION. Experts from the NRC should be on duty in the control room of every reactor round the clock, armed with full authority to take over at the first sign of trouble, order a shut down if that seems necessary, direct all emergency procedures for closing the plant-and damn what it may cost. At present, this responsibility is borne largely by utility-company employees, who, with the best will in the world, cannot avoid thinking about the costs to the company. In addition, computers at all U.S. nuclear plants should be wired in to a central NRC monitoring station...
LEGISLATION. President Carter is again expected to submit a bill to Congress to speed up licensing procedures for nuclear plants. No action was taken on a similar bill last year. Congressmen understandably are wary about putting new nuclear plants into operation more quickly. But the bill calls for standardizing reactor designs, with appropriate safeguards, and for building up a bank of preselected sites on which reactor construction would be permitted. Those provisions would enhance safety...
HARRISBURG, Pa.--New tests show that the core of the nuclear reactor at the Three Mile Island power plant which failed last month suffered grave damage in the early stages of the crisis, federal officials announced yesterday...