The cult of the atom: The secret papers of the Atomic Energy Commission
The US Atomic Energy Commission, created by Congress in 1946, grew into a uniquely powerful, mission-oriented bureaucracy. One of its main goals was the creation of a flourishing commercial nuclear power program. By the late 1950s, the AEC began to acquire frightening data about the potential hazards of nuclear technology. It decided, nevertheless, to push ahead with ambitious plans to make nuclear energy the dominant source of the nation's electric power by the end of the century. The AEC proceeded to authorize the construction of larger and larger nuclear reactors all around the country, the dangers notwithstanding. The AEC gambled that its scientists would, in time, find deft solutions to all the complex safety difficulties. The answers were slow in coming, however. According to the AEC secret files, government experts continued to find additional problems rather than the safety assurances the agency wanted. There were potential flaws in the plants being built, AEC experts said, that could lead to ''catastrophic'' nuclear-radiation accidents - peace-time disasters that could dwarf any the nation had ever experienced. Senior officials at the AEC responded to the warnings from their own scientists by suppressing the alarming reports and pressuring the authors to keep quiet. Meanwhile, the agency continued to license mammoth nuclear power stations and to offer the public soothing reassurances about safety. The nuclear-safety cover-up in the US - the story of this book - can now be told in full as a result of information gathered from hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests by the author and his colleagues at the Union of Concerned Scientists. The nuclear power program, although championed ardently by the government, is now in a shambles - the victim of plant breakdowns, cost overruns, project cancellations, and rising public skepticism following the accident in 1979 at Three Mile Island.
- Research Organization:
- Ford (Daniel), Cambridge, MA (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6236143
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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