Word: recent
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...industry has been battered further by recent reverses in fights with Government regulators. Last January the Nuclear Regulatory Commission withdrew its endorsement of a bench mark 1974 study by about 60 scientists, headed by Norman Rasmussen. a professor of nuclear engineering at M.I.T. The report rated the chance of a serious nuclear accident about the same as the probability of a meteor hitting a major city (one in a million). An opposing group of scientists, led by University of California Physicist Harold Lewis, had convinced the NRC that the Rasmussen study, while not necessarily wrong, had insufficient statistical basis...
...Three Mile Island accident is only the most recent--and best-publicized--in a long series of serious reactor mishaps. In 1975, for example, a fire at the massive Brown's Ferry nuclear plant destroyed safety systems, filled the plant's control room with dense smoke, and threatened a meltdown. Nuclear engineers from the Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates the plant, have stated that a potentially catastrophic radiation release from Brown's Ferry was averted "by sheer luck...
...record on nuclear waste is no better. Despite periodic official reassurances, no proven method of safe, permanent radioactive waste disposal exists. A recent report by a federal interagency task force conceded this point, claiming that no available technology can guarantee containment of waste beyond a few thousand years...
...MOST recent report to the Harvard Corporation, the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) recommended that the University continue its role as the pen pal of corporate managers, writing "forcefully worded" letters to persuade reluctant corporations to confess their sins and reform...
...programs which McCloskey would have young people join--the Peace Corps, ACTION, etc.--are based on concepts of voluntarism. And herein lies the contradiction: what a recent Library of Congress study labels the "highly questionable" constitutionality under 13th amendment which prohibits non-military "involuntary servitude." Even within a framework of military or civilian choice such as the one McCloskey offers, young people have no choice but to serve. The estimated $20 billion cost of compulsory service seems better spent on ensuring freedom of choice while making the volunteer army a more attractive alternative. The fear of the draft has returned...