The de-escalation of a nuclear crisis is one of the major issues facing humankind. This book examines how nations in crises might successfully move back from the brink of nuclear war and how confidence-building measures might help and hinder the de-escalatory process.

Viewed by experts as being on the threshold of acquiring nuclear weapons, Argentina and Brazil have recently taken steps to assure each other their nuclear programs are entirely peaceful. This reports on a 1989 conference that anticipated these events and explored the approaches being taken today.

Why did nuclear energy policies in France, Sweden, and the United States, very similar at the time of the oil crisis of 1973 and 1974, diverge so greatly in the following years? In answering this question, James Jasper challenges one of the most popular trends in political analysis: explanations relying exclusively on political and economic structures to account for public policies. Jasper proposes a new cultural and state-centered approach--one heeding not only structural factors but cultural meanings, individual biographies, and elite discretion. Surveying the period from the successful commercialization of light-water-reactor technology in the early 1960s to the present, he explains the events that occurred after 1973: France built even more reactors than it needed, the United States canceled most reactor orders, and Sweden completed planned nuclear plants but decided to phase out nuclear energy by 2010. This work is based on one hundred interviews with managers, policymakers, and activists in the three countries. In addition to providing a unique theoretical perspective, it broadens our understanding of nuclear policy by looking at three countries in depth and over a long historical span. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Professor Knorr examines bends in the values which nations derive in their international relationships from the possession and use of both nuclear and non-nuclear military forces, and suggests that territorial conquest and the furtherance of economic benefits by military means have generally diminished in appeal. He inquires into the costs and disadvantages of military power-the greatly reduced security obtainable even by the major nuclear powers and the noticeable diminution in the legitimacy of international violence in its several forms. Originally published in 1966. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Why did nuclear energy policies in France, Sweden, and the United States, very similar at the time of the oil crisis of 1973 and 1974, diverge so greatly in the following years? In answering this question, James Jasper challenges one of the most popular trends in political analysis: explanations relying exclusively on political and economic structures to account for public policies. Jasper proposes a new cultural and state-centered approach--one heeding not only structural factors but cultural meanings, individual biographies, and elite discretion. Surveying the period from the successful commercialization of light-water-reactor technology in the early 1960s to the present, he explains the events that occurred after 1973: France built even more reactors than it needed, the United States canceled most reactor orders, and Sweden completed planned nuclear plants but decided to phase out nuclear energy by 2010.

This work is based on one hundred interviews with managers, policymakers, and activists in the three countries. In addition to providing a unique theoretical perspective, it broadens our understanding of nuclear policy by looking at three countries in depth and over a long historical span.

Originally published in 1990.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

In Resurrecting Nagasaki, Chad R. Diehl explores the genesis of narratives surrounding the atomic bombing of August 9, 1945, by following the individuals and groups who contributed to the shaping of Nagasaki City's postwar identity. Municipal officials, survivor-activist groups, the Catholic community, and American occupation officials all interpreted the destruction and reconstruction of the city from different, sometimes disparate perspectives. Diehl's analysis reveals how these atomic narratives shaped both the way Nagasaki rebuilt and the ways in which popular discourse on the atomic bombings framed the city's experience for decades.

"The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy quickly established itself as a classic when it first appeared in 1981. This edition makes it even better, incorporating as it does new material about the Cold War and up-dating to include subsequent developments. Filled with insights and penetrating analysis, this volume is truly indispensable." -Robert Jervis, Author of How Statesmen Think "Freedman and Michaels have written a thorough and thought-provoking guide to nuclear strategy. The authors analyze the causes of both wise and unwise strategic decisions in the past and thereby shine a bright light on dilemmas we face in our common nuclear future." -Scott Sagan, Stanford University, USA "With its comprehensive coverage, clear and direct language, and judicious summaries of a vast literature, this new and wholly revised edition of The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy will be essential reading for any student of nuclear history, strategic studies, or contemporary international relations." -Matthew Jones, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK "Sir Lawrence Freedman's The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy has been the first port of call for three generations of academics and policy-makers wanting to familiarize themselves with the subject matter. The success of this book could have led Professor Freedman to satisfy himself with regular updates or afterwords. But the tireless author is now gracing us with an entirely revised edition of his masterpiece nearly forty years after its initial publication, taking into account findings from archives and declassified documents. At the same time, The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy remains true to its original purpose and spirit: an easy to read manual, light with footnotes, focusing on policy rather than on theory, and thus the best possible introduction to an arcane subject. In an era when nuclear strategy issues seem to be becoming relevant again, its historical scope and breadth will make its reading or re-reading even more useful - if only because knowing about the absurdity of the Cold war arms race is a prerequisite if one does not want to repeat its mistakes." -Bruno Tertrais, Deputy Director, Fondation pour la Recherche Strategique, France "This updated and improved edition of the classic text on the evolution of nuclear strategy is a must read for anyone attempting to understand the nuclear predicament and where it is heading. Impressive in every respect!" -T.V. Paul, James McGill Professor of International Relations, McGill University, Canada, and the author of The Traditon of Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons "After the end of the Cold War, we hoped for a world in which nuclear weapons would have 'low salience', or might even disappear into virtual, non-assembled arsenals. Alas, they are coming to the fore again. With changes in political context and technology, it is thus pressing that 'the Bible' on the Evolution of Nuclear Strategy should be updated. Lawrence Freedman's great classic has been admirably updated with the help of Jeff Michaels. The work, just as its previous editions, thus remains the definitive and authoritative point of reference on nuclear strategy in the twenty-first century." -Beatrice Heuser, Chair of International Relations, University of Glasgow, Scotland First published in 1981, Lawrence Freedman's The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy was immediately acclaimed as the standard work on the history of attempts to cope militarily and politically with the terrible destructive power of nuclear weapons. It has now been completely rewritten, drawing on a wide range of new research, and updated to take account of the period following the end of the cold war, and covering all nuclear powers.

The basic logic is very simple. Countries around the globe have a need for more electrical generating capacity because of increases in population and increases in energy use per capita. The needs are constrained by the requirement that the ba- load energy source be economical, secure, and not emit climate-changing gases. Nuclear power fits this description. Therefore, many countries that have not had a nuclear power program (or only had a small program) see a need to develop one in the future. However, the development of a national nuclear energy program is not so simple. The purpose of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Nuclear Power and Energy Security was to contribute to our understanding of how these programs might evolve. The workshop took place 26-29 May 2009 in Yerevan, Armenia. Approximately 50 participants discussed the infrastructure that is needed and some of the reactor options that might be considered. The papers in this book helped define the discussion that took place. The infrastructure that is needed includes a legal framework, a functioning regulator, a plan for waste disposal, a plan for emergency response, etc. These needs were explained and just as importantly, it was explained what international, bilateral, and regional cooperation is available. Although there were many co- tries represented, the Armenian experience was of particular interest because of where the meeting was located. The papers on reactor options covered both innovative and evolutionary designs.

On April 26, 1986, Unit Four of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in then Soviet Ukraine. More than 3.5 million people in Ukraine alone, not to mention many citizens of surrounding countries, are still suffering the effects. "Life Exposed" is the first book to comprehensively examine the vexed political, scientific, and social circumstances that followed the disaster. Tracing the story from an initial lack of disclosure to post-Soviet democratizing attempts to compensate sufferers, Adriana Petryna uses anthropological tools to take us into a world whose social realities are far more immediate and stark than those described by policymakers and scientists. She asks: What happens to politics when state officials fail to inform their fellow citizens of real threats to life? What are the moral and political consequences of remedies available in the wake of technological disasters?

Through extensive research in state institutions, clinics, laboratories, and with affected families and workers of the so-called Zone, Petryna illustrates how the event and its aftermath have not only shaped the course of an independent nation but have made health a negotiated realm of entitlement. She tracks the emergence of a "biological citizenship" in which assaults on health become the coinage through which sufferers stake claims for biomedical resources, social equity, and human rights. "Life Exposed" provides an anthropological framework for understanding the politics of emergent democracies, the nature of citizenship claims, and everyday forms of survival as they are interwoven with the profound changes that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Radiological Risk Assessment and Environmental Analysis comprehensively explains methods used for estimating risk to people exposed to radioactive materials released to the environment by nuclear facilities or in an emergency such as a nuclear terrorist event. This is the first book that merges the diverse disciplines necessary for estimating where radioactive materials go in the environment and the risk they present to people. It is not only essential to managers and scientists, but is also a teaching text. The chapters are arranged to guide the reader through the risk assessment process, beginning with the source term (where the radioactive material comes from) and ending with the conversion to risk. In addition to presenting mathematical models used in risk assessment, data is included so the reader can perform the calculations. Each chapter also provides example and working problems. The book will be a critical component of the rebirth of nuclear energy now taking place, as well as an essential resource to prepare for and respond to a nuclear emergency.

"Fifteen years before the Enron, WorldCom, and Parmalat debacles, another company embarked on a strategy that appeared to be driven more by the allure of short-term profits and compensation for management than by the long-term interests of shareholders. In this case, though, the risks those managers took extended beyond the purely financial to the safety of several large nuclear power plants. A sobering tale, told fairly and skillfully."--Paul Portney, President, Resources for the Future

"MacAvoy and Rosenthal paint a vivid picture of a board of directors ignoring not just red flags, but explicit warnings of the impending calamity, while being calmed by a complacent management. Their book serves as a warning to be absorbed by all boards that diligence, surely post-Enron, requires more than probing the bottom line; it includes all risks to the enterprise, probing beyond management assurances, and appropriate information flow to, and leadership of, the board."--Ira M. Millstein, Senior Partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Chairman of the Private Sector Advisory Group of the World Bank/OECD Global Corporate Governance Forum

"This story is important for anyone with an interest in corporate governance. It makes clear the conflicts that develop and the danger to shareholders when an industry structure changes, but executive compensation systems do not. MacAvoy and Rosenthal provide a penetrating analysis of Northeast's nuclear negligence. At Northeast, an electric utility, regulation was giving way to competition, but no change was occurring in nuclear safety requirements. Northeast executives, whose short-term compensation incentives were based on income, cut nuclear operating andmaintenance costs, making safety violations and plant shutdowns inevitable in the long term. Shareholders suffered while executives were unscathed."--Richard Bower, Leon E. Williams Professor of Finance and Managerial Economics, Emeritus, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College

"This book provides an entertaining and informative look at the implications of competition for nuclear safety. It should be read widely."--R. Preston McAfee, J. Stanley Johnson Professor of Business, Economics, and Management, California Institute of Technology, author of "Competitive Solutions: The Strategist's Toolkit"

"Paul MacAvoy and Jean Rosenthal offer an interesting discussion of one of the unforeseen problems associated with deregulating the electric utility industry. Their book will serve as a useful warning to other nuclear power plant operators--and operators in other safety-critical industries, such as airlines--that safety is a constraint, not a variable, in maximizing profits."--Geoffrey Rothwell, Stanford University

Since 2011, the German government has been implementing a policy phasing out nuclear power. Over a period of seven years, Bernhard Ludewig photographed the country's atomic landscape and history, keeping a visual record of the buildings and the work performed in them. The images, collected here, create a unique panorama of usually inaccessible spaces. On show are the plants' operations - processes including the opening of the reactor and the loading of Castor containers for transport - and interiors, such as control rooms and cooling towers. The book follows the journey of uranium from enrichment through reprocessing to final storage, and shows research spanning from Otto Hahn's discovery of fission to thorium and breeder reactor prototypes. In total 55 sites are represented, and im ages of research reactors, training facilities, and Chernobyl's sarcophagus provide a further look behind closed door. The Nuclear Dream offers an insight into a disappearing world whose rooms and technology often appear sacred. It is a fitting tribute to an era of boundless energy - one whose blue glow captured a generation and proclaimed the start of a new era.

Since the 1980s, the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu has faced multiple forms of resistance. Women and men from different walks of life - fishers, farmers, environmentalists, activists, writers, scholars, teachers, journalists, doctors, and lawyers among many others - have come together to combat the deadly radioactive repercussions and repression that come with the development of a high-security nuclear installation. Drawing upon their experiences, this historical and ethnographic study accounts for the anti-nuclear campaign's part in 'right-to-lives' movements while engaging with the (re)production of knowledge and ignorance in the understanding of radiation, and efforts to create an evidence base in response to the otherwise unavailable or insufficient data on the environment and public health in India. Tracing the grassroots struggle for 'energy justice' off- and on-line, the author looks into the larger questions of development, democracy, and nationalism. These have marked not just parts of India identified for large-scale constructions, but also other regions of the world where state functionaries have much to gain from corporate collaborations at the cost of local residents who lose their livelihoods, and are forcibly displaced, persecuted, or even killed in order to execute governmental designs in the name of the nation.

This textbook is the first comprehensive and systematic account of the science, technology and policy issues associated with nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Throughout their account of the evolution of nuclear policy, from its origin to the early Trump presidency, the authors interweave clear technical expositions of the science and technology that underpin and constrain it. The book begins by tracing the early work in atomic physics, the discovery of fission, and the developments that led to the Manhattan Project and the delivery of atomic bombs against Japan that ended World War II. It follows the initial failed attempts at nuclear disarmament, the onset of the Cold War nuclear arms competition, and the development of light water reactors to harness nuclear energy for electric power generation. The authors thoroughly unpack the problem of nuclear proliferation, examining the strategy and incentives for states that have and have not pursued nuclear weapons, and providing an overview of the nuclear arsenals of the current nuclear weapon states. They trace the technical, political and strategic evolution of deterrence, arms control and disarmament policies from the first attempts for an Outer Space Treaty in 1957 through the new START treaty of 2009. At critical junctures in the narrative, the authors explain the relevant nuclear science and technology including nuclear fission and criticality; nuclear materials and enrichment; nuclear detonation and nuclear weapons effects; nuclear weapons stockpile constraints, stewardship and surveillance; nuclear fusion and thermonuclear weapons; technologies for monitoring, verification and proliferation; and nuclear forensics. They conclude with an assessment of contemporary issues ranging from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action reached to halt Iran's nuclear weapons development program, to the threat of nuclear terrorism, the perceived nuclear weapons policies of Russia and China, and the US efforts to provide disincentives for its allies to acquire their own nuclear weapons by maintaining credible security guarantees.

This book provides a readable and thought-provoking analysis of the issues surrounding nuclear fuel reprocessing and fast-neutron reactors, including discussion of resources, economics, radiological risk and resistance to nuclear proliferation. It describes the history and science behind reprocessing, and gives an overview of the status of reprocessing programmes around the world. It concludes that such programs should be discontinued. While nuclear power is seen by many as the only realistic solution to the carbon emission problem, some national nuclear establishments have been pursuing development and deployment of sodium-cooled plutonium breeder reactors, and plutonium recycling. Its proponents argue that this system would offer significant advantages relative to current light water reactor technology in terms of greater uranium utilization efficiency, and that separating out the long-lived plutonium and other transuranics from spent fuel and fissioning them in fast reactors would greatly reduce the duration of the toxicity of radioactive waste. However, the history of efforts to deploy this system commercially in a number of countries over the last six decades has been one of economic and technical failure and, in some cases, was used to mask clandestine nuclear weapon development programs. Covering topics of significant public interest including nuclear safety, fuel storage, environmental impact and the spectre of nuclear terrorism, this book presents a comprehensive analysis of the issue for nuclear engineers, policy analysts, government officials and the general public. "Frank von Hippel, Jungmin Kang, and Masafumi Takubo, three internationally renowned nuclear experts, have done a valuable service to the global community in putting together this book, which both historically and comprehensively covers the "plutonium age" as we know it today. They articulate in a succinct and clear manner their views on the dangers of a plutonium economy and advocate a ban on the separation of plutonium for use in the civilian fuel cycle in view of the high proliferation and nuclear-security risks and lack of economic justification." (Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency (1997-2009), Nobel Peace Prize (2005)) "The 1960s dream of a 'plutonium economy' has not delivered abundant low-cost energy, but instead has left the world a radioactive legacy of nuclear weapons proliferation and the real potential for nuclear terrorism. Kang, Takubo, and von Hippel explain with power and clarity what can be done to reduce these dangers. The governments of the remaining countries whose nuclear research and development establishments are still pursuing the plutonium dream should pay attention." (Senator Edward Markey, a leader in the US nuclear-disarmament movement as a member of Congress since 1976) "The authors have done an invaluable service by putting together in one place the most coherent analysis of the risks associated with plutonium, and the most compelling argument for ending the practice of separating plutonium from spent fuel for any purpose. They have given us an easily accessible history of the evolution of thinking about the nuclear fuel cycle, the current realities of nuclear power around the world and, arguably most important, a clear alternative path to deal with the spent fuel arising from nuclear reactors for decades to centuries to come." (Robert Gallucci, Chief US negotiator with North Korea (1994); Dean, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service (1996-2009); President, MacArthur Foundation (2009-2014))

With the World desperate to find energy sources that do not emit carbon gasses, nuclear power is back on the agenda and in the news, following the increasing cost of fossil fuels and concerns about the security of their future supply. However, the term 'nuclear power' causes anxiety in many people and there is confusion concerning the nature and extent of the associated risks. Here, Maxwell Irvine presents a concise introduction to the development of nuclear physics leading up to the emergence of the nuclear power industry. He discusses the nature of nuclear energy and deals with various aspects of public concern, considering the risks of nuclear safety, the cost of its development, and waste disposal. Dispelling some of the widespread confusion about nuclear energy, Irvine considers the relevance of nuclear power, the potential of nuclear fusion, and encourages informed debate about its potential. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Radioactive particles have been released to the environment from a number of sources, including nuclear weapon tests, nuclear accidents and discharges from nuclear installations. Particle characteristics influence the mobility, biological uptake and effects of radionuclides, hence information on these characteristics is essential for assessing environmental impact and risks. This publication presents a series of papers covering sources and source term characterisation, methodologies for characterizing particles, and the impact of particles on the behaviour of radioactive particles in the environment. Sources covered include the Chernobyl accident, nuclear weapons accidents at Thule and Palomares accident, the discharges from Dounreay and Krashnoyarsk, and depleted uranium in Kosovo and Kuwait. The overall aim is that an increased understanding of particle characteristics and behavior will help to reduce some of the uncertainties in environmental impact and risk assessment for particle contaminated areas.

How an alliance of the labor and environmental movements used law as a tool to clean up the trucking industry at the nation's largest port. In Blue and Green, Scott Cummings examines a campaign by the labor and environmental movements to transform trucking at America's largest port in Los Angeles. Tracing the history of struggle in an industry at the epicenter of the global supply chain, Cummings shows how an unprecedented "blue-green" alliance mobilized to improve working conditions for low-income drivers and air quality in nearby communities. The campaign for "clean trucks," Cummings argues, teaches much about how social movements can use law to challenge inequality in a global era. Cummings shows how federal deregulation created interrelated economic and environmental problems at the port and how the campaign fought back by mobilizing law at the local level. He documents three critical stages: initial success in passing landmark legislation requiring port trucking companies to convert trucks from dirty to clean and drivers from contractors to employees with full labor rights; campaign decline after industry litigation blocked employee conversion; and campaign resurgence through an innovative legal approach to driver misclassification that realized a central labor movement goal-unionizing port truckers. Appraising the campaign, Cummings analyzes the tradeoffs of using alternative legal frameworks to promote labor organizing, and explores lessons for building movements to regulate low-wage work in the "gig" economy. He shows how law can bind coalitions together and split them apart, and concludes that the fight for legal reform never ends, but rather takes different turns on the long road to justice.

More than a decade after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, what we are witnessing is not a Second Nuclear Age - there is no post-atomic - but an uncanny, quiet return of the nuclear threat that so vividly animated the Cold War era. The renewed threat of nuclear proliferation, public complacency regarding weapons stockpiles, and the lack of a single functioning long-term repository after seventy years and thousands of tonnes of nuclear waste reveals the industry's capacity for self-reinvention abetted by an ever-present capacity to forget. More than "fabulously textual," as Jacques Derrida described it, the protean, unbound, and unending materiality of the nuclear is here to stay: resistance is crucial. Toxic Immanence introduces contemporary interdisciplinary perspectives that resist and decolonize the nuclear. Contributors highlight the prevalence and irrationality of slow violence and colonial governance as elements of the contemporary nuclear age. They propose a reappraisal of Cold War-era anti-nuclear art as well as pop culture representations of nuclear disaster, while decolonizing pedagogies advance the role of education in communicating and understanding the lethality of nuclear complexes. Collectively, the essays develop a robust critical discourse across fields of nuclear knowledge and integrate the work of the nuclear humanities with environmental justice and Indigenous rights activism. This reach across ways of knowing extends artistically: the poetry and photography included in this volume offer visions of past and present nuclear legacies. Conceived as a critical reflection on the potential of nuclear humanities, Toxic Immanence offers intellectual strategies for resisting and abolishing the global nuclear regime.

Professor Knorr examines bends in the values which nations derive in their international relationships from the possession and use of both nuclear and non-nuclear military forces, and suggests that territorial conquest and the furtherance of economic benefits by military means have generally diminished in appeal. He inquires into the costs and disadvantages of military power-the greatly reduced security obtainable even by the major nuclear powers and the noticeable diminution in the legitimacy of international violence in its several forms. Originally published in 1966. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Radiation shielding has been for many years - too many years - the province of physicists and mathematicians. This is not to say that these have been the only ones confronted with shielding problems. Nuclear engineers encounter them daily. But physicists needed to shield first their accelerators and later their reactors, and they, with mathematicians, have developed the methods. And for too long engineers have relied on advice from these original shielders in their own design problems. The difficulty has been largely one of communication. Physicists, from FERMI and ZINN, who performed the first reactor shield research, to those currently so engaged, have written reports which were in the Physicists' language, and which did not extrapolate from their special data to the general problems. Later, texts on shielding were written by physicists - GOLDSTEIN, and PRICE, HORTON and SPINNEY - which told of the knowledge at hand. The engineer ROCKWELL edited the contributions of many people, most of whom were physi cists, in another text, but even this engineered approach attempted little more than to record experience from the submarine program."

Was ist Strahlenschutz, wie gefahrlich sind Strahlen? Die Autoren informieren verstandlich uber Fakten, Hypothesen und gesetzliche Grenzwerte. Sie setzen bewusst keine Kenntnisse der Physik, Biologie oder Medizin voraus. Das Buch ist fur alle die geschrieben, die wissen mochten, was hinter dem Begriff "Strahlenschutz" steckt. Der Erfolg dieses Buches hat gezeigt, wie dringend notwendig eine sachliche Information uber die Strahlen- und Strahlenschutzproblematik ist. Gerade die Meinungsbildner, Lehrer und Arzte, sind gefordert, die Frage nach den Gefahren einer Kerntechnik auch quantitativ korrekt zu beantworten. Dies gilt besonders in einer Zeit, in der nach einem GAU in Tschernobyl und Vorwurfen gegen die Atomindustrie in der Tagespresse die Kernenergie politisch vertretbar erscheint. Beide Autoren gehoren zu der kleinen Gruppe hauptberuflicher Strahlenschutzer. Sie sind Mitglieder nationaler und internationaler Kommissionen, in denen die Grenzwerte diskutiert und Empfehlungen beschlossen werden. Die 3. Auflage des Bu- ches berucksichtigt die Grenzwertempfehlungen der ICRP (Internationale Kommission fur Strahlenschutz) von 1990 im Arbeitsschutz und fur die Bevolkerung. Sie wurden geandert, als neue Untersuchungen eine tatsachlich niedrigere Strahlendosis in Hiroshima und Nagasaki ergaben. Damit erleben die Untersuchungen der Krebssterbefalle an Uberlebenden der Atombombenabwurfe eine neue Bewertung.

Der vorliegende Band des Handbuchs der medizinischen Radiologie zu der bisher wenig beachteten Frage von Strahlengefahrdung und Strahlenschutz umfaBt unseren heutigen Wis- sensstand tiber die Vedinderungen an Organen und Geweben, Funktionseinheiten und Syste- men des Organismus, die durch Einwirkungen ionisierender Strahlen und anderer physika- Ii scher Energien auftreten konnen. Vorangestellt werden Kenntnisse tiber die allgemeine zelluHire Strahlenbiologie und Strahlenpathologie sowie die generellen Fragen der biolo- gischen Wirkung dicht-ionisierender Teilchenstrahlen, urn allgemein die Strahlenwirkungen auf den lebenden Organismus besser verstehen zu konnen. Neben den Ubersichten der Strah- lenwirkungen auf die Abdominalorgane, den Harntrakt, die Lunge, das Hirn- und Nervenge- webe, den Knochen und die Haut werden das lymphatische System, das Knochenmark als blutbildendes System und die Strahlenreaktionen an den Generationsorganen in ihren verschiedenen Reaktionsphasen bis zur Schadigung und die Gewebserholung mit reparativen Vorgangen abgehandelt. Ein eigener Abschnitt des Bandes befaBt sich mit der Strahlengefahrdung durch Umwelt- einfltisse und berticksichtigt die nattirliche Strahlenexposition, behandelt das Berufsrisiko beim Urn gang mit radioaktiven Stoffen und setzt sich mit Strahlenkatastrophen aus arztlicher Sicht auseinander. Dabei werden nicht nur Reaktorunfalle, sondern auch Atombombenexplo- sionen mit ihren Schaden und den Moglichkeiten ihrer Behandlung eingehend erortert. Der Kenntnisstand tiber den chemischen Strahlenschutz bei Saugetieren und beim Menschen wird ausfUhrlich abgehandelt und abschlieBend werden der Wirkungsmechanismus von Strahlenschutzsubstanzen beim Menschen sowie die bisher gesammelten Erfahrungen einge- hend besprochen. 1m letzten Abschnitt des Handbuches werden die Probleme der kombinierten Strahlenthe- rapie erortert.

Originally perceived as a cheap and plentiful source of power, the commercial use of nuclear energy has been controversial for decades. Worries about the dangers that nuclear plants and their radioactive waste posed to nearby communities grew over time, and plant construction in the United States virtually died after the early 1980s. The 1986 disaster at Chernobyl only reinforced nuclear power's negative image. Yet in the decade prior to the Japanese nuclear crisis of 2011, sentiment about nuclear power underwent a marked change. The alarming acceleration of global warming due to the burning of fossil fuels and concern about dependence on foreign fuel has led policymakers, climate scientists, and energy experts to look once again at nuclear power as a source of energy.
In this accessible overview, Charles D. Ferguson provides an authoritative account of the key facts about nuclear energy. What is the origin of nuclear energy? What countries use commercial nuclear power, and how much electricity do they obtain from it? How can future nuclear power plants be made safer? What can countries do to protect their nuclear facilities from military attacks? How hazardous is radioactive waste? Is nuclear energy a renewable energy source? Featuring a discussion of the recent nuclear crisis in Japan and its ramifications, Ferguson addresses these questions and more in Nuclear Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know(r), a book that is essential for anyone looking to learn more about this important issue.
What Everyone Needs to Know(r) is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press

This book offers a critical evaluation of current scientific work on defining the issue of sustainability and on measuring progress towards a sustainable state. It aims to provide a common understanding of how progress towards sustainability can be achieved by optimising technological development, environmental impact and socio-economic factors. A further objective is to identify the major trends in methodologies that assist progress towards sustainability.