Analyzing the impact and benefits of nuclear energy on environment, this book examines nuclear treaties in relation to environmental protection, highlights legal framework on non-proliferation and denuclearization, explores treaties on nuclear safety and nuclear security, discusses legal regimes on management of nuclear wastes, assesses the third-party liability regime and discusses the role of IAEA, EURATOM and NEA in regulating nuclear energy. It explores nuclear energy in the context of climate change and sustainable development. This book also examines the international legal framework on notification, assistance and emergency preparedness in the event of nuclear accidents, considers legal aspects of decommissioning of nuclear power plants and main legislative trends on nuclear energy use in selected countries. It also addresses regulatory responses to nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima power plant nuclear accident in Japan.

Decades of U.S. nuclear weapons production have exacted a heavy environmental toll. The Department of Energy estimates that cleaning up waste and contamination resulting from production activity will cost over $150 billion. Yet even once that money is spent, these sites will need long-term attention to assure protection of human health and the environment.

In the authors' words, stewardship refers to "institutions, information, and strategies needed to ensure protection of people and the environment, both in the short and the long term," after the DOE finishes its "cleanup" of the weapons complex. Probst and McGovern make a compelling case for establishing a formal program of long-term stewardship for contaminated sites. The legacy of environmental damage is considerable: hazardous waste disposal, radioactive waste, and contaminated facilities are among the problems that will remain after DOE cleanup efforts are complete. Stewardship planning, they say, must start now.

This report details the requirements of a successful stewardship program and discusses the daunting technical and political challenges facing such efforts. It articulates important issues to be tackled, such as the institutional home for key stewardship functions. The authors conclude with suggested next steps.

This book explores the politics of anti-nuclear activism in Tokyo after the Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 2011. Analyzing the protests in the context of a longer history of citizen activism in Tokyo, it also situates the movement within the framework of a global struggle for democracy, from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street. By examining the anti-nuclear movement at both urban and transnational scales, the book also reveals the complex geography of today's globally connected social movements. It emphasizes the contestation of urban space by anti-nuclear activists in Tokyo and the weaving together of urban and cyber space in their praxis. By focusing on the cultural life of the movement-from its characteristic demonstration style to its blogs, zines and pamphlets-this book communicates activists' voices in their own words. Based on excellent ethnographic research, it concludes that the anti-nuclear protests in Tokyo after the Fukushima disaster have redefined social movement politics for a new era. Providing an analysis of a unique period in Japan's contemporary urban history from the perspective of eyewitness observations, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Japanese Politics, Sociology and Japanese Studies in general.

Korean security was the focus of worldwide attention and concern in 1993-95 with North Korea's "suspected" nuclear weapons program. Dubbed by some as the first post-Cold War nuclear crisis, it was triggered by the United Nations Security Council's move to impose economic sanctions on North Korea. Although the immediate crisis was defused diplomatically, the nuclear time bomb continues to tick on the Korean peninsula and the issues remain under close international surveillance. This important book examines North Korea's nuclear controversy from a variety of perspectives, including nuclear reactor technology and technology transfer, economic sanctions and incentives, strategic calculus and confidence-building measures, the major powers, and environmental challenges that a nuclear-free zone in Korea will present.

Korean security was the focus of world-wide attention and concern in 1993-95 with North Korea's "suspected" nuclear weapons program. Dubbed by some as the first post-Cold War nuclear crisis, it was triggered by the United Nations Security Council's move to impose economic sanctions on North Korea. Although the immediate crisis was defused diplomatically, the nuclear time bomb continues to tick on the Korean peninsula, and the issues remain under close international surveillance. This important book examines North Korea's nuclear controversy from a variety of perspectives, including nuclear reactor technology and technology transfer, economic sanctions and incentives, strategic calculus and confidence-building measures, the major powers, and environmental challenges that a nuclear-free zone in Korea will present.

First Published in 1996. This ambitious ten-volume series develops a comprehensive analysis of the evolving world rile of the post-Soviet successor states. Each volume considers a different factor influencing the relationship between internal politics and international relations in Russia and the western and southern tiers of newly independent states. The contributors were chosen not only for their recognised expertise but also to ensure a stimulating diversity of perspectives and a dynamic mix of approaches.

First Published in 1996. This ambitious ten-volume series develops a comprehensive analysis of the evolving world rile of the post-Soviet successor states. Each volume considers a different factor influencing the relationship between internal politics and international relations in Russia and the western and southern tiers of newly independent states. The contributors were chosen not only for their recognised expertise but also to ensure a stimulating diversity of perspectives and a dynamic mix of approaches.

*WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2018* *WINNER OF THE PUSHKIN HOUSE BOOK PRIZE 2019* 'As moving as it is painstakingly researched. . . a cracking read' Viv Groskop, Observer 'A riveting account of human error and state duplicity. . . rightly being hailed as a classic' Hannah Betts, Daily Telegraph On 26 April 1986 at 1.23am a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine exploded. While the authorities scrambled to understand what was occurring, workers, engineers, firefighters and those living in the area were abandoned to their fate. The blast put the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation, contaminating over half of Europe with radioactive fallout. In Chernobyl, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy draws on recently opened archives to recreate these events in all their drama. A moment by moment account of the heroes, perpetrators and victims of a tragedy, Chernobyl is the first full account of a gripping, unforgettable Cold War story. 'A compelling history of the 1986 disaster and its aftermath . . . plunges the reader into the sweaty, nervous tension of the Chernobyl control room on that fateful night when human frailty and design flaws combined to such devastating effect' Daniel Beer, Guardian 'Haunting ... near-Tolstoyan. His voice is humane and inflected with nostalgia' Roland Elliott Brown, Spectator 'Extraordinary, vividly written, powerful storytelling ... the first full-scale history of the world's worst nuclear disaster, one of the defining moments in the Cold War, told minute by minute' Victor Sebestyen Sunday Times 'Plays out like a classical tragedy ... fascinating' Julian Evans, Daily Telegraph 'Here at last is the monumental history the disaster deserves' Julie McDowall, The Times

Long before the tragedy of the 2011 nuclear disasters in Japan, the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl experienced an explosion, meltdown, fire, and massive release of radioactivity. Twenty-five years later, we still know very little about the event and its aftermath. Few of the professional papers describing the aftereffects of the disaster have been translated from Russian into English or distributed in the West. This is now remedied, with the publication of this definitive volume, based on original sources, and originally published in Russian. Alla A. Yaroshinskaya describes the human side of the disaster, with firsthand accounts by those who lived through the world's worst public health crisis. Chernobyl: Crime without Punishment is a unique account of events by a reporter who defied the Soviet bureaucracy. The author presents an accurate historical record, with quotations from all the major players in the Chernobyl drama. It also provides unique insight into the final stages of Soviet communism. Yaroshinskaya describes actions after the disaster: how authorities built a new city for Chernobyl residents but placed it in a highly polluted area. She also details the actions of the nuclear lobby inside and outside the former Soviet Union. Bringing the book into the twenty-first century, the author reviews the latest medical data on Chernobyl people's health from the affected countries and from independent investigations; and states why there has been no trial of top officials who covered up Chernobyl and its disastrous consequences.

Once home to the United States's largest plutonium production site, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state is laced with 56 million gallons of radioactive waste. The threat of an explosive accident at Hanford is all too real—an event that could be more catastrophic than Chernobyl.  The EPA designated Hanford the most toxic place in America; it is also the most expensive environmental clean-up job the world has ever seen, with a $677 billion price tag that keeps growing. Huge underground tanks, well past their life expectancy and full of boiling radioactive gunk, are leaking, infecting groundwater supplies and threatening the Columbia River. Whistleblowers, worried that the worst is ahead, are now speaking out, begging to be heard and hoping their pleas help bring attention to the dire situation at Hanford. Aside from a few feisty community groups and handful of Indigenous activists, there is very little public scrutiny of the clean-up process, which is managed by the Department of Energy and carried out by contractors with shoddy track records, like Bechtel. In the context of renewed support for atomic power as a means of combating climate change, Atomic Days provides a much-needed refutation of the myths of nuclear technology—from weapons to electricity—and shines a spotlight on the ravages of Hanford and its threat to communities, workers and the global environment.

This book features information regarding the Chernobyl nuclear accident, the production of elementary particles, radiation exposure, the geopolitical effects of the end of the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, and the future of nuclear power.

The identification and assessment of threats provides an essential basis for the selection, design, and implementation of nuclear security measures. For nuclear material and other radioactive material that is under regulatory control, and associated facilities and activities, the results of this identification and assessment are expressed as a design basis threat or representative threat statement describing the intentions and capabilities of potential adversaries against which the materials and associated facilities and activities are to be protected. An Implementing Guide was issued in 2009 under the title of Development, Use and Maintenance of the Design Basis Threat which was updated and revised. The result of this revision is the current publication. It provides a step?bystep methodology for conducting a national nuclear security threat assessment including both physical and computer security aspects, and for the development, use and maintenance of design basis threats and representative threat statements.

The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was an event of obviously transnational significance-not only in the airborne particulates it deposited across the Northern hemisphere, but in the political and social repercussions it set off well beyond the Soviet bloc. Focusing on the cases of Great Britain and France, this innovative study explores the discourses and narratives that arose in the wake of the incident among both state and nonstate actors. It gives a thorough account of the stereotypes, framings, and "othering" strategies that shaped Western European nations' responses to the disaster, and of their efforts to come to terms with its long-term consequences up to the present day.

This study provides a detailed historical account of the policy and practice of radioactive waste management in Britain, Sweden and the Federal Republic of Germany. In their differing approaches, these three countries define the parameters of civil nuclear strategy in Europe. The comparative analysis of the evolution of policy clarifies the context of political and technical decision-making. Assessing the varying degrees of influence which the public, the industry and the government exercise over these actions, Frans Berkhout applies the concept of boundaries of "control", questioning the extent to which such control can be relinquished. This analysis of nuclear strategy, the politics of nuclear power and the shifting emphasis of government regulations redefines the issue of radioactive waste management and sets it at the centre of the current debate about power, the environment and society.

Five years after the one of the worst nuclear accidents in history, Fukushima now only occasionally headlines national and international media. However, the disaster is far from over, as evidenced by a hundred thousand people from Fukushima still in the state of evacuation, rising levels of radiation in streams and rivers, and failing attempts to control the leakage of radioactive materials at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Despite these dismal conditions, efforts to recover and rebuild livelihoods in the afflicted regions of Fukushima did start immediately after the outset of the accident. Rebuilding Fukushima gives an account of how citizens, local governments, and businesses responded to and coped with the crisis of Fukushima. It addresses principles to guide reconstruction and international policy environments in which the current disaster is situated. It explores how reconstruction is articulated and experienced at different spatial scales, ranging from individuals to communities and municipalities, and details recovery efforts, achievements, and challenges in the realms of public transportation, agriculture and food production, manufacturing industries, retail sectors, and renewable-energy industries. This book also critically investigates the nature of the current reconstruction policy schemes, and seeks to articulate what may be required in order to achieve more sustainable and equitable (re)development in afflicted regions and other nuclear host regions. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and local surveys, this volume is one of the first books in English that captures the knowledge and insights of native Japanese social scientists who dealt with the complexities of nuclear disaster on a day-to-day basis. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of disaster-management studies and nuclear policy.

This collection of factual reports, short stories, poems and drawings expresses in a deeply personal voice the devastating effects of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

This book is the product of a unique collaboration by experts from leading international, regional and national agencies and professional organizations discussing on the current 'hot' issue on the judicious use and safety of radiation in radiology. There have been several cases involving radiation overexposure that have received international attention. Strategies and solutions to guide readers how to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks when using radiation in medicine are covered.

Every day throughout Britain, by road, by rail and by sea, there are large numbers of routine movements of radioactive cargo. Materials at all stages of the nuclear cycle, from uranium ore to nuclear waste, from nuclear warheads to radioactive isotopes used in medicine, are constantly on the move. In normal circumstances handling low-level material exposes workers to small doses of radiation, but a serious accident could lead to widespread contamination and to the major risk of additional deaths from cancer. The accident record is not good. There are repeated small accidents and many people believe that the major accident is simply waiting to happen. This book gives a thorough account of what is moved, by wham and far what purpose. It considers the risks, including that of terrorism, the safety record and the precautions. It also highlights the perils of the secrecy surrounding the industry: for example, local councils are responsible for coping with any accident, but are not told when or where nuclear movements are taking place. Martin Bond's careful work is a large step towards order in a chaotic industry. Originally published in 1992

Public regulation of site-selection for nuclear power plants is woven into the fabric of the distinctively-American experience in exercising government control over privately-owned public utilities. Originally published in 1977, the authors have identified the various dimensions of public concern with the selection of new nuclear power sites. This volume, divided into four parts, explores the complex issues at the heart of American nuclear power: Part I contains literature which describes the process of power-plant siting as conducted by the utilities; Part II contains studies and reports on the structure and process of public regulation; Part III describes local government, State, and other Federal agency regulation of siting; and finally, Part IV cites selected proposals and analyses of recommendations for regulatory reform. This is a valuable resource for any student interested in environmental studies and public policy reform.

What will replace fossil fuel? Is there a way forward using renewable energy sources while avoiding nuclear power? This book argues that nuclear is unlikely to have much of a role in future, and shows that the pro- and anti-nuclear debate has absorbed too much time and energy over the years. This has been to the detriment of a more relevant, interesting and increasingly urgent debate over what sort of renewable/efficiency mix we need. This book engages in that debate, exploring the implications of shifting to greener, cleaner energy sources. Importantly, David Elliott argues there is no one green future. There is a range of possible options of various types and scales: we need to choose amongst them. This book offers an overview of the technical, economic and environmental issues to help scholars, professionals and policy makers involved in discussing those options.

Man’s environment is pervaded by ionizing radiation of predominantly natural origin but now with an important contribution from anthropogenic activities. Exposure to ionizing radiation can have serious health implications, which is why it is of concern to us. This book brings together under one cover, the fundamentals of radiological protection, the techniques used for measuring radioactivity and radionuclides and the methods for modelling the dispersion of radionuclides in the environment. Information on radioactive decay, the interaction of ionizing radiation with matter and biological effects of radiation is provided in a form that enables the reader to quickly appreciate its importance to the environment and human health. Summaries of the effects of past releases, including the Chernobyl accident, are included as well as examples of applications of models to calculate and predict concentrations of radionuclides in our environment.

This book is aimed at all those studying, at undergraduate and graduate levels, radioactivity in the environment and its impact on man. It will also serve as a handbook for workers in the fields of radiochemical analysis and environmental modelling and for scientists, consultants and environmental health and pollution officers who have to provide radiological data or information for legislative and related purposes.

Nuclear power plant disasters threaten the entire planet. From so-called `developed' Russia to Japan, USA to France; in the aftermath of an accident, thousands of people are deprived of their basic human right to health and subjected to lies and suppression of information. Workers of the nuclear power plant, people who live in that region as well as in other parts of that country, residents of close countries and even consumers from distant places who have to buy the contaminated products; every single one of them is affected. Nuclear Disasters: Chernobyl and Fukushima covers the impacts of accidents in these two nuclear power plants with more clarity since a reasonable amount of time has passed for data accuracy. Even a country as developed as Japan failed to take the first measure after a nuclear power plant accident, iodine tablet distribution, and it has already led to great consequences. A significant lesson learned from all these accidents is that, just like the global climate change, nuclear power plants concern an area larger than the jurisdiction of the state that they are built in, namely they concern every living organism on this planet. Therefore, all the people who will suffer from the negative effects have the right to resist nuclear energy regardless of whichever country a reactor is built in.

This book offers a comprehensive assessment of the dynamics driving, and constraining, nuclear power development in Asia, Europe and North America, providing detailed comparative analysis. The book formulates a theory of nuclear socio-political economy which highlights six factors necessary for embarking on nuclear power programs: (1) national security and secrecy, (2) technocratic ideology, (3) economic interventionism, (4) a centrally coordinated energy stakeholder network, (5) subordination of opposition to political authority, and (6) social peripheralization. The book validates this theory by confirming the presence of these six drivers during the initial nuclear power developmental periods in eight countries: the United States, France, Japan, Russia (the former Soviet Union), South Korea, Canada, China, and India. The authors then apply this framework as a predictive tool to evaluate contemporary nuclear power trends. They discuss what this theory means for developed and developing countries which exhibit the potential for nuclear development on a major scale, and examine how the new "renaissance" of nuclear power may affect the promotion of renewable energy, global energy security, and development policy as a whole. The volume also assesses the influence of climate change and the recent nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, on the nuclear power industry's trajectory. This book will be of interest to students of energy policy and security, nuclear proliferation, international security, global governance and IR in general.

Emma Watson's Our Shared Shelf book club choice New York Times bestseller 'Fascinating.' Sunday Times 'Thrilling.' Mail on Sunday All they wanted was the chance to shine. Be careful what you wish for... 'The first thing we asked was, "Does this stuff hurt you?" And they said, "No." The company said that it wasn't dangerous, that we didn't need to be afraid.' As the First World War spread across the world, young American women flocked to work in factories, painting clocks, watches and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous - the girls shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in dust from the paint. However, as the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses. It turned out that the very thing that had made them feel alive - their work - was slowly killing them: the radium paint was poisonous. Their employers denied all responsibility, but these courageous women - in the face of unimaginable suffering - refused to accept their fate quietly, and instead became determined to fight for justice. Drawing on previously unpublished diaries, letters and interviews, The Radium Girls is an intimate narrative of an unforgettable true story. It is the powerful tale of a group of ordinary women from the Roaring Twenties, who themselves learned how to roar. Further praise for The Radium Girls 'The importance of the brave and blighted dial-painters cannot be overstated.' Sunday Times 'A perfect blend of the historical, the scientific and the personal.' Bustle 'Thrilling and carefully crafted.' Mail on Sunday