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Title: Nuclear power and non-proliferation: the remaking of US policy

Book ·
OSTI ID:5484903

The author recounts how the US has dealt with the problem of nuclear proliferation in the period since 1974, a year when India exploded a bomb, the oil crisis increased demand for nuclear energy, and the commercialization of fuel-producing technologies could be used for weapons purposes. Based on close observation of the process of setting nuclear policies and interviews with policymakers, the book gives detailed and anecdotal pictures of how the political system works within the context of interagency and legislative politics, as well as within the larger context of international conflicts concerning access to and control of nuclear power. The author notes the tendency of military and civilian programs to diverge until the events of 1974 brought them into a single focus. He examines the Ford administration's rethinking of prevailing attitudes and programs and the more-drastic reforms of the Carter administration. The concluding chapter offers an overall assessment of the US's performance as it sought to restore greater measures of national and international control over the growth and extension of nuclear power worldwide. 203 references.

OSTI ID:
5484903
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English