The near meltdown in 1979 at Three Mile Island, America, plunged the nuclear power industry into a crisis of confidence that threatened its very existence. This work analyzes how the industry managed to stabilize itself through a complete transformation in the safety standards, operation and management of nuclear facilities in America. After describing the poor quality of safety before disaster shook the industry into action, the book documents the emergence of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) and reveals how this industry organization became a major force behind improvements in nuclear safety. In his account of INPO's beginnings and its functions, the author shows how, contrary to conventional wisdom, industry self-regulation can be remarkably effective. For Rees, what happened for the nuclear power industry suggests a new form of regulation - communitarian regulation - that has important implications for the role of private and public control of other key industries.

The United States and its allies are in a complex nuclear age, with potential adversaries modernising their arsenals, new nuclear technologies emerging, and potential new proliferants -- as well as regional challenges -- raising significant concerns. Nuclear forces provide the ultimate guarantee against major war and coercion, serving both to deter the use of weapons and to support nonproliferation initiatives. This book summarises the findings of a Congressional Advisory Panel on the current health of the nuclear security enterprise, examines the root causes of its governance challenges, and offers recommendations to address the identified problems. Furthermore, the book addresses how the Nuclear Weapons Council (Council) carries out its statutory and regulatory responsibilities and any challenges it faces in doing so and the extent to which the Council's actions are consistent with key practices for interagency collaboration.

The magnitude 9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011, claiming over 20,000 lives. It crippled the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, whose hydrogen-air explosions contaminated wide areas around Fukushima with radionuclides. The number of evacuees initially totaled 328,903, but has been reduced to 263,392 as of February 13, 2014. More than half of the evacuees (132,500) consist of Fukushima residents, and 67% of whom have experienced mental or physical disorders. Indeed, refugee life is so difficult that many Fukushima families have been affected by suicide, divorce, separation of family members, migration and settlement to other places, mental illness, etc. The difficulty is caused by the fear of low-dose radiation induced by the LNT model which claims that radiation cancer risk is linearly proportional to dose without any threshold. Careful scrutiny of the model, however, clearly indicates that the linearity is invalid; low dose radiation is not hazardous, but is even beneficial or hormetic because of the adaptive response to radiation. This book provides ample evidence to negate the LNT model. This book is primarily compiled to get rid of the spell of the LNT model and release Fukushima people from undue torture. The book would also be useful to the public in general who have CT scans and have concerns. In addition, the people who use radiation world-wide such as nuclear power plant workers, radiation researchers, radiologists, and X-ray operators would be relieved to learn from reading this book that the alleged risk of low-dose radiation is illusionary and that the low-dose radiation is even beneficial. Policy makers of nuclear energy and radiation who are working for governmental and/or regulatory agencies are also recommended to read this book. Severe guidelines from a safety standpoint sometimes entrap people into a fear-stricken situation rather than save them, as no one was killed by radiation directly, but more than 1,000 people have been killed by the fear of radiation secondarily in Fukushima. By the same token, this book is recommended to civil activists and journalists who emphasise dangers of low-dose radiation and raise fear of low-dose radiation. It is the time to shed new scientific light on the outdated LNT model.

Stephen M. Meyer steps back from the emotions and rhetoric surrounding the nuclear arms debates to provide a systematic examination of the underlying determinants of nuclear weapons proliferation. Looking at current theories of nuclear proliferation, he asks: Must a nation that acquires the technical capability to manufacture nuclear weapons eventually do so? In an analysis, remarkable for its rigor and accessibility, Meyer provides the first empirical, statistical model explaining why particular countries became nuclear powers when they did. His findings clearly contradict the notion that the pace of nuclear proliferation is controlled by a technological imperative and show that political and military factors account for the past decisions of nations to acquire or forgo the development of nuclear weapons.

Almost 30 years ago, Congress addressed increasing concerns regarding the management of the nation's growing stockpile of nuclear waste by calling for the federal collection of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level nuclear waste (HLW) for safe, permanent disposal. Passed in 1982, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) was an effort to establish an explicit statutory basis for the Department of Energy (DOE) to dispose of the nation's most highly radioactive nuclear waste. The NWPA requires DOE to remove spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants, in exchange for a fee, and transport it to a permanent geologic repository or an interim storage facility before permanent disposal. This book explores the effects of a termination of the Yucca Mountain Repository Program with a focus on the need for a comprehensive DOE strategy that supports environmental cleanup decisions.

The Bush Administration has pursued several avenues to attempt to contain or end the potential threat posed by Iran, at times pursuing limited engagement, and at other times leaning toward pursuing efforts to change Iran's regime. Some experts believe a potential crisis is looming over Iran's nuclear program because the Bush Administration is sceptical that efforts by several European allies to prevent a nuclear breakout by Iran will succeed, although the Administration announced steps in March 2005 to support those talks. U.S. concerns have been heightened by the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an admitted hardliner, in Iran's presidential election on June 24, 2005. Some advocate military action against Iran's nuclear infrastructure, but others believe that a combination of diplomatic and economic rewards and punishment are the only viable options on the nuclear issue. U.S. sanctions currently in effect ban or strictly limit U.S. trade, aid, and investment in Iran and penalise foreign firms that invest in Iran's energy sector, but unilateral U.S. sanctions do not appear to have materially slowed Iran's WMD programs to date. Other major U.S. concerns include Iran's policy in the Near East region, particularly Iran's material support to groups that use violence against the U.S.-led Middle East peace process, including Hizballah in Lebanon and the Palestinian groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Some senior Al Qaeda activists are in Iran as well, although Iran claims they are "in custody" and will be tried. Iran did not obstruct the U.S. effort to oust Iraq's Saddam Hussein, a long-time Tehran adversary, at least partly in the expectation that pro-Iranian Shiite Islamic factions would come to power in Iraq in the aftermath. That result occurred as a product of 30 January 2005 elections there. Iran is also assisting pro-Iranian local leaders in Afghanistan, although that support does not appear to be materially hindering the stabilisation and development of Afghanistan. Iran's human rights practices and strict limits on democracy have been consistently criticised by official U.S. and U.N. reports, particularly for Iran's suppression of political dissidents and religious and ethnic minorities. New limits on personal freedoms could be imposed by Ahmadinejad, who has consistently advocated a return to many of the original principles of the Islamic revolution as set down by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. However, Iran does hold elections for some positions, including that of president, suggesting to some experts that there might be benefits to engaging Iranian officials. According to this view, new sanctions or military action could harden Iran's positions without necessarily easing the potential threat posed by Iran.

A practical guide to the basic physics that radiation protection professionals need A much-needed working resource for health physicists and other radiation protection professionals, this volume presents clear, thorough, up-to-date explanations of the basic physics necessary to address real-world problems in radiation protection. Designed for readers with limited as well as basic science backgrounds, Physics for Radiation Protection emphasizes applied concepts and carefully illustrates all topics through examples as well as practice problems. Physics for Radiation Protection draws substantially on current resource data available for health physics use, providing decay schemes and emission energies for approximately 100 of the most common radionuclides encountered by practitioners. Excerpts of the Chart of the Nuclides, activation cross sections, fission yields, fission-product chains, photon attenuation coefficients, and nuclear masses are also provided. Coverage includes: * The atom as an energy system * An overview of the major discoveries in radiation physics * Extensive discussion of radioactivity, including sources and materials * Nuclear interactions and processes of radiation dose * Calculational methods for radiation exposure, dose, and shielding * Nuclear fission and production of activation and fission products * Specialty topics ranging from nuclear criticality and applied statistics to X rays * Extensive and current resource data cross-referenced to standard compendiums * Extensive appendices and more than 400 figures This complete discussion of the basic concepts allows readers to advance their professional skills.

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.

"Planning as Persuasive Storytelling" is a revealing look at the world of political conflict surrounding the Commonwealth Edison Company's ambitious nuclear power plant construction program in northern Illinois during the 1980s. Examining the clash between the utility, consumer groups, community-based groups, the Illinois Commerce Commission, and the City of Chicago, Throgmorton argues that planning can best be thought of as a form of persuasive storytelling. A planner's task is to write future-oriented texts that employ language and figures of speech designed to persuade their constituencies of the validity of their vision. Juxtaposing stories about efforts to construct Chicago's electric future, "Planning as Persuasive Storytelling" suggests a shift in how we think about planning. In order to account for the fragmented and conflicted nature of contemporary American life and politics, that shift would be away from "science" and the "experts" and toward rhetoric and storytelling.

From Einstein and Truman to Sartre and Derrida, many have declared the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be decisive events in human history. None, however, have more acutely understood or perceptively critiqued the consequences of nuclear war than Japanese writers. In this first complete study of the nuclear theme in Japanese intellectual and artistic life, John Whittier Treat shows how much we have to learn from Japanese writers and artists about the substance and meaning of the nuclear age.
Treat recounts the controversial history of Japanese public discourse around Hiroshima and Nagasaki--a discourse alternatively celebrated and censored--from August 6, 1945, to the present day. He includes works from the earliest survivor writers, including Hara Tamiki and Ota Yoko, to such important Japanese intellectuals today as Oe Kenzaburo and Oda Makoto. Treat argues that the insights of Japanese writers into the lessons of modern atrocity share much in common with those of Holocaust writers in Europe and the practitioners of recent poststructuralist nuclear criticism in America. In chapters that take up writers as diverse as Hiroshima poets, Tokyo critics, and Nagasaki women novelists, he explores the implications of these works for critical, literary, and cultural theory.
Treat summarizes the Japanese contribution to such ongoing international debates as the crisis of modern ethics, the relationship of experience to memory, and the possibility of writing history. This Japanese perspective, Treat shows, both confirms and amends many of the assertions made in the West on the shift that the death camps and nuclear weapons have jointly signaled for the modern world and for thefuture.
"Writing Ground Zero" will be read not only by students of Japan, but by all readers concerned with the fate of culture after the fact of nuclear war in our time.

Emu Field is overshadowed by Maralinga, the larger and much more prominent British atomic test site about 193 kilometres to the south. But Emu Field has its own secrets, and the fact that it was largely forgotten makes it more intriguing. Only at Emu Field did a terrifying black mist speed across the land after an atomic bomb detonation, bringing death and sickness to Aboriginal populations in its path. Emu Field was difficult and inaccessible. So why did the British go there at all, when they knew that they wouldn't stay? What happened to the air force crew who flew through the atomic clouds? And why is Emu Field considered the 'Marie Celeste' of atomic test sites, abandoned quickly after the expense and effort of setting it up? Elizabeth Tynan, the award-winning author of Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story, reveals a story of a cataclysmic collision between an ancient Aboriginal land and the post-war Britain of Winston Churchill and his gung-ho scientific advisor Frederick Lindemann. The presence of local A?angu people did not interfere with Churchill's geopolitical aims and they are still paying the price. The British undertook Operation Totem at Emu Field under cover of extreme remoteness and secrecy, a shroud of mystery that continues to this day.

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.

This book is a comprehensive compilation of reports, correspondence and other publications on Ukraine. Some of the issues discussed include: *U.S. Policy *The Conflict with Russia *The Presidential Election *The Whistleblower Complaint *Atomic Energy

The development and implementation of an appropriate infrastructure to support the successful introduction of nuclear power and its safe, secure, peaceful and sustainable application is an issue of central concern, especially for countries that are considering and planning their first nuclear power plant. In preparing the necessary nuclear infrastructure, there are several activities that need to be completed. These activities can be split into three progressive phases of development. This publication provides a description of the conditions expected to be achieved by the end of each phase to assist with the best use of resources. 'Milestones' refer to the conditions necessary to demonstrate that the phase has been successfully completed.

Downwind is an unflinching tale of the atomic West that reveals the intentional disregard for the inhabitants and the environment in nuclear testing by the federal government and in uranium extraction by mining corporations during and after the Cold War. Sarah Alisabeth Fox interviews residents of the Great Basin region affected by environmental contamination from the uranium industry and nuclear testing fallout. Those residents tell tales of communities ravaged by cancer epidemics, farmers and ranchers economically ruined by massive crop and animal deaths, and Native miners working in dangerous conditions without proper safety equipment so that the government could surreptitiously study the effects of radiation on humans. In chilling detail, Downwind brings to light the stories and concerns of these groups whose voices have been silenced and marginalized for decades in the name of "patriotism" and "national security." With the renewed boom in mining in the American West, Fox's look at this hidden history, unearthed from years of field interviews, archival research, and epidemiological studies, is a must-read for every American concerned about the fate of our western lands and communities.

Bahman Zohuri, PhD opens this book by first describing the history of nuclear power plants and then supplements this information by making a case for their importance. Chapter One proposes the use of combined cycles to produce electricity through nuclear fuel in order to yield a greater investment return. Next, Chapter Two by Jurgen K. Grunwald presents a study wherein the power, concerning nuclear non-proliferation, of two European organizations is explored. In Chapter Three, Takayuki Nakamura discusses the necessity for the upcoming generation to attain knowledge about nuclear safety and regulations. The creation of a project which encourages students to create robots with the goal of decommissioning Fukushina Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is explained.

Medical exposure to ionising radiation remains by far the largest contributor to the radiation dose from manmade sources of radiation. Strategies for dose and risk management, with a focus on the minimisation of the stochastic effect and prevention of tissue reactions are presented in Chapter One. A critical review about solid radioactive wastes in Nuclear Medicine facilities and its management, storage and disposal is covered in Chapter Two. Chapter Three presents an assessment of a mixed system for calculating electromagnetic dosimetry that combined experimental radiation parameters and Finite Differences in Temporal Domain simulations based on numerical phantom rats. Chapter Four described and compares the legislation and legal provisions on waste disposal for medium, low and high levels of radiation among BRICS countries Brazil, Russia Federation, India, Peoples Republic of China and South Africa. Chapter Five introduces studies on the assessment of local acceptance of radioactive waste facilities.

In September 2016 it will be 60 years since the first British mushroom cloud rose above the plain at Maralinga in South Australia. The atomic weapons test series wreaked havoc on Indigenous communities and turned the land into a radioactive wasteland. In 1950 Australian prime minister Robert Menzies blithely agreed to atomic tests that offered no benefit to Australia and relinquished control over them - and left the public completely in the dark. This book reveals the devastating consequences of that decision. After earlier tests at Monte Bello and Emu Field, in 1956 Australia dutifully provided 3200 square kilometres of South Australian desert to the British Government, along with logistics and personnel. How could a democracy such as Australia host another country's nuclear program in the midst of the Cold War? In this meticulously researched and shocking work, journalist and academic Elizabeth Tynan reveals how Australia allowed itself to be duped. Maralinga was born in secret atomic business, and has continued to be shrouded in mystery decades after the atomic thunder stopped rolling across the South Australian test site. This book is the most comprehensive account of the whole saga, from the time that the explosive potential of splitting uranium atoms was discovered, to the uncovering of the extensive secrecy around the British tests in Australia many years after the British had departed, leaving an unholy mess behind.

Following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 2011 many concerned citizens-particularly mothers-were unconvinced by the Japanese government's assurances that the country's food supply was safe. They took matters into their own hands, collecting their own scientific data that revealed radiation-contaminated food. In Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists Aya Hirata Kimura shows how, instead of being praised for their concern about their communities' health and safety, they faced stiff social sanctions, which dismissed their results by attributing them to the work of irrational and rumor-spreading women who lacked scientific knowledge. These citizen scientists were unsuccessful at gaining political traction, as they were constrained by neoliberal and traditional gender ideologies that dictated how private citizens-especially women-should act. By highlighting the challenges these citizen scientists faced, Kimura provides insights into the complicated relationship between science, foodways, gender, and politics in post-Fukushima Japan and beyond.

The nuclear industry is in a state of flux. Proclamations of a nuclear renaissance have given way to predictions of the industry's ultimate decline, and now, in the face of new carbon emissions regulation, renewed optimism for the future. Yet, nuclear plants are currently at-risk due to electricity market design issues and competition with low priced natural gas. This book attempts to provide clarity to the potential outlook for the nuclear industry by examining the factors that influence it. It includes an analysis of recent trends affecting nuclear power generation while focusing on the specific potential impact of the EPA's proposed Clean Power Program on nuclear power.

Uranium is a naturally occurring, ubiquitous heavy metal. In various chemical forms, natural uranium is found in all soils, rocks, seas and oceans. It is also present in drinking water and food. Uranium was discovered in 1781 by Klaprot, a pharmacist in Berlin, in the Joachisthal silver mines. This book starts with a short history of uranium. It continues with the legacy of uranium mining and the authors go on to discuss the environmental and health effects of depleted uranium, which has the unique potential to threaten all natural resources, including human society because of its radiotoxic effects. Uranium migration properties are explored through the geological structures and the groundwater systems based on the determination of its total concentration essential for environmental studies. Other chapters examine the recovery of uranium from phosphate rock; the influence of uranium on the environment and the studies of content of uranium in soil, building materials, drinking water and even in the urine of specific population such as in the Czech Republic, a uranium rich territory; the types of uranium deposits; uranium bioremediation as an eco-friendly, promising approach, which will play an irreplaceable role in global nuclear energy development; discussions on uranium as one of the most widespread contaminants in groundwater in mining areas, as well as in surface waters in Brazil; and an examination of fuel materials that have been developed for use in nuclear power reactors including uranium. Bulk uranium-based systems are very complex and it is difficult to draw unambiguous conclusion on their properties and reaction mechanisms from experiments. Therefore in this book, laboratory experiments using simple model systems - thin films, for single effect studies which have a ground-breaking nature are explored in detail in this book.

The March 2011 accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant led to a worldwide review of nuclear power programs. NRC licenses and oversees civilian nuclear reactors. The State Department coordinates policy matters with international organisations and treaties, including those dealing with nuclear safety. This book examines the actions nuclear regulatory bodies from selected countries have taken to strengthen nuclear safety; the extent to which these countries have established automated systems to collect and transmit accident data; and steps international organisations have taken to support nuclear regulatory bodies and promote nuclear safety worldwide since the accident.

Rising fossil fuel prices and concerns about greenhouse gas emissions are fostering a nuclear power renaissance and a revitalized uranium mining industry across the American West. In The Price of Nuclear Power, environmental sociologist Stephanie Malin offers an on-the-ground portrait of several uranium communities caught between the harmful legacy of previous mining booms and the potential promise of new economic development. Using this context, she examines how shifting notions of environmental justice inspire divergent views about nuclear power's sustainability and equally divisive forms of social activism. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in rural isolated towns such as Monticello, Utah, and Nucla and Naturita, Colorado, as well as in upscale communities like Telluride, Colorado, and incorporating interviews with community leaders, environmental activists, radiation regulators, and mining executives, Malin uncovers a fundamental paradox of the nuclear renaissance: the communities most hurt by uranium's legacy - such as high rates of cancers, respiratory ailments, and reproductive disorders - were actually quick to support industry renewal. She shows that many impoverished communities support mining not only because of the employment opportunities, but also out of a personal identification with uranium, a sense of patriotism, and new notions of environmentalism. But other communities, such as Telluride, have become sites of resistance, skeptical of industry and government promises of safe mining, fearing that regulatory enforcement won't be strong enough. Indeed, Malin shows that the nuclear renaissance has exacerbated social divisions across the Colorado Plateau, threatening social cohesion. Malin further illustrates ways in which renewed uranium production is not a socially sustainable form of energy development for rural communities, as it is utterly dependent on unstable global markets. The Price of Nuclear Power is an insightful portrait of the local impact of the nuclear renaissance and the social and environmental tensions inherent in the rebirth of uranium mining.

Radioactive material is used worldwide for legitimate commercial purposes, including industrial processes in the oil and gas, aerospace, and food sterilisation sectors. Material used for these purposes is typically sealed in a metal capsule, such as stainless steel, titanium, or platinum, to prevent its dispersal and is commonly called a sealed source.1 Some of these sources are highly radioactive and are found in a wide variety of devices, ranging from mobile industrial radiography sources containing hundreds of curies of iridium-192 to larger irradiators with thousands, or even millions, of curies of cobalt-60. In the hands of terrorists, these sources could be used to produce a simple and crude, but potentially dangerous weapon, known as a radiological dispersal device or dirty bomb, whereby conventional The facilities where these sources are contained include, among other things, warehouses, commercial facilities, and research buildings. This book examines the challenges in reducing security risks posed by industrial radiological sources and the steps federal agencies are taking to improve security of the sources.

The United States (US) program for siting interim storage and permanent disposal facilities for used nuclear fuel (UNF) is at a crossroads. The March 2010 request by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for termination of the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) license application, followed one year later by the disastrous nuclear events in Fukushima, Japan, have resulted in a fundamental reconsideration of approaches for siting interim and permanent UNF management facilities in the US. This book provides findings from a set of social science studies undertaken by the Center for Risk and Crisis Management (CRCM) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), which focus on public attitudes and preferences concerning the siting of nuclear repositories and interim storage facilities. This book is also a framework for moving toward a sustainable program to deploy an integrated system capable of transporting, storing, and disposing of used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from civilian nuclear power generation, defence, national security and other activities.