Nuclear Renewal : Common Sense about Energy

The author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb discusses the feasibility of nuclear power in America, arguing that it is the safest, cleanest, and most economical energy source available. 25,000 first printing. $20,000 ad/promo.

Nuclear power accounts for 75% of France's electrical output. The figure is 27% in Japan, whose nuclear power plants are more efficient and safer than their U.S. counterparts, which generate approximately 20% of the nation's electricity; the Japanese estimate that nuclear power will be their cheapest energy source by 2010. To investigate what went wrong with the U.S. nuclear energy industry, Rhodes ( The Making of the Atomic Bomb ) went to Japan and France to interview energy officials, scientists and safety personnel. He concludes that U.S. manufacturers, government regulators and utilities together produced the current nuclear energy impasse through bad design, neglect of safety issues, gross mismanagement and inexperienced labor. Citing France's highly efficient fuel reprocessing program, Rhodes argues that the technology is available to eliminate the problem of storing tons of unprocessed "spent" fuel. Blaming the Chernobyl disaster on complacency, fatal design flaws and safety violations, he also observes that "no commercial reactor in the United States is designed anything like" Chernobyl. His forceful, challenging polemic is almost certain to revive national debate over the future of nuclear power.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Rhodes (Making Love, 1992; The Making of the Atomic Bomb, 1987, etc.) turns his talent for historical analysis to the volatile issue of nuclear power, asking: Is it safe? Is it clean? What went wrong with the industry's development in the US? Can it be redesigned and resold to a fearful American public? ``Nuclear power isn't dead,'' Rhodes says. ``It runs France and will soon run Japan.'' The blame for the US industry's troubles goes mostly to strikingly poor management, whose technological ignorance, lack of involvement, and complacency, Rhodes charges, led to extremely uneven performance and profitability among the country's plants--though needlessly ``adversarial'' governmental regulations, rising interest rates, a misinformed antinuclear movement, and disasters like Three Mile Island didn't help. The result is tragic, Rhodes claims, since nuclear power remains the cleanest, most practical source of energy--less damaging to the environment than hydroelectric dams, less polluting than oil, less lethal to humans than coal, and without natural gas's contribution to the greenhouse effect. Examining successful nuclear-power programs in Japan and France, Rhodes notes the benefits gained by centralization of the industry: cooperation between regulators and utilities; incentives for communities who allow construction of plants; and the establishment of a ``nuclear culture'' in which nuclear power isn't treated as ``just another way to boil water'' but as a sophisticated technology requiring highly trained employees, constant vigilance, and a committed, informed management. Rhodes suggests that America can also take advantage of new innovations in reusing ``dirty'' (non-weapons-grade) fuel, shortened toxicity of radioactive waste, and new breeder reactors that are passively safe, low-waste, and economically competitive. ``There are overtones in this development [of nuclear power],'' physicist and statesman J. Robert Oppenheimer commented in 1957, ``... of pride and terror, of mystery and hope.'' Rhodes's thorough presentation helps to quiet these overtones--and to demystify the nuclear-power industry. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In this brief, readable book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rhodes ( The Making of the Atomic Bomb , LJ 3/1/87; Making Love , LJ 7/92) argues that "nuclear power isn't dead" and that as the "cleanest and safest significant form of energy available... it ought to be supported, not condemned." Noting that the public has often confused nuclear energy with nuclear weapons, he seeks to clear up misconceptions with a concise history of commercial nuclear power in the United States, blaming its setbacks on mismanagement by the utilities, regulatory commissions, and equipment manufacturers ("the truth is that nuclear power was killed, not by its enemies, but by its friends"). Rhodes then analyzes the nuclear programs of Japan and France, proposes potential models for the United States, and examines the accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. His final chapter is devoted to the future of nuclear power. While his thesis will be disputed by nuclear opponents, the value of Rhodes's book lies in his making complex ideas easily understandable to lay readers. Recommended.
- Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.