The Atom and the Fault : Experts, Earthquakes, and Nuclear Power

Meehan, Richard L.

ISBN 10: 0262631067 / ISBN 13: 9780262631068

Published by Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.: MIT Press, 1986, 1986

About this Item

ISBN: 0262631067, Trade paperback, 1st paperback edition (no additional printings listed), Very Good Plus/pictorial wraps; trace of light wear to covers and cover edges, 8vo., 161 pages., 0.0 0.0 0.0.

Seller Inventory # 08279

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Atom and the Fault : Experts, Earthquakes, and Nuclear Power
• Publisher: Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.: MIT Press, 1986
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262631067
• ISBN 13: 9780262631068
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: First Edition.

About this title

Synopsis

With wit and thoughtful compassion, Richard Meehan presents one of the most perplexing of contemporary moral predicaments, one that arises in every attempt to assess potentially hazardous technologies. He focuses on the longrunning controversy over suspected earthquake faults near the nation's first corporately owned nuclear test reactor at Vallecitos, California, and uses this account of "the politics of expertise" to probe the nature of scientific truth and its relationship to the determination of public safety. At Vallecitos, Meehan points out, the opinions of the "experts" were radically divided. Where one group saw clear and ominous evidence of an earthquake fault in trenches dug at this showpiece site, others saw only the mark of an ancient landslide. How did these experts arrive at their opinions? Were they simply representing corporate, as opposed to environmentalist, points of view? And how are the public regulatory agencies charged with deciding such issues supposed to balance these seemingly irreconcilable opinions? The Atom and the Fault explores these crucial questions as the issue of the earthquake safety of nuclear power plants continues to grow into a struggle encompassing government regulatory bodies, public utilities, private industry, engineers, geologists, and citizen activists. It paints candid portraits of the principal expert players, clarifies the difficult and often delicate interplay of honesty and loyalties among them, and lucidly explains the technical issues and viewpoints involved. As a professional participant in several environmental controversies in which so-called scientific facts were represented by opposing points of view, Meehan is uniquely qualified to tell this tale. He is a consultant to industry, government agencies, and law firms specializing in forecasting and damage assessment related to earthquakes and land failures, and an adjunct professor in the Values, Technology, Scie

About the Author

Richard Meehan is an adjunct professor in the Values, Technology, Science, and Society program at Stanford University.