In this publication, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) provides updated guidance on radiological protection from cosmic radiation in aviation, taking into account the current ICRP system of radiological protection, the latest available data on exposures in aviation, and experience gained worldwide in the management of exposures in aviation. The publication describes the origins of cosmic radiation, how it exposes passengers and aircraft crew, the basic radiological protection principles that apply to this existing exposure situation, and the available protective actions. For implementation of the optimisation principle, the Commission recommends a graded approach proportionate to the level of exposure that may be received by individuals. The objective is to keep the exposure of the most exposed individuals to a reasonable level. The Commission also recommends that information be disseminated to raise awareness about cosmic radiation, and to support informed decisions among concerned stakeholders.

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 Fukushima nuclear power plant explosions and the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings are intimately connected events, bound together across time by a nuclear will to power that holds little regard for life. In Fukushima: Dispossession or Denuclearization? contributors document and explore diverse dispossession effects stemming from this nuclear will to power, including market distortions, radiation damage to personal property, wrecked livelihoods, and transgenerational mutations potentially eroding human health and happiness. Liberal democratic capitalism is itself disclosed as vulnerable to the corrupting influences of the nuclear will to power. Contributors contend that denuclearization stands as the only viable path forward capable of freeing humans from the catastrophic risks engineered into global nuclear networks. They conclude that the choice of dispossession or denuclearization through the pursuit of alternative technologies will determine human survival across the twenty-first century.

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.

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.

Every nuclear weapons program for decades has relied extensively on illicit imports of nuclear-related technologies. This book offers the most detailed public account of how states procure what they need to build nuclear weapons, what is currently being done to stop them, and how global efforts to prevent such trade could be strengthened. While illicit nuclear trade can never be stopped completely, effective steps to block illicit purchases of nuclear technology have sometimes succeeded in slowing nuclear weapons programs and increasing their costs, giving diplomacy more chance to work. Hence, this book argues, preventing illicit transfers wherever possible is a key element of an effective global non-proliferation strategy.

At the dawn of the atomic age, uranium and thorium were equally important as the elements of choice in researching nuclear energy - either one could have powered the world's reactors. But it was uranium that won out, and thorium, which is far cleaner, safer, and more abundant than uranium, was relegated to the dustbin of science. With it went the possibility of creating a low-risk nuclear energy source to power our planet. Now, as the world searches for cheap, non-carbon-emitting energy sources, thorium is reemerging as an overlooked solution. As one of the first energy experts to promote the development of thorium, award-winning science writer Richard Martin combines science, new historical research, and a timely business narrative to show how we can wean ourselves off our fossil-fuel addiction and shift to a lower-risk energy source. At once a big think book and a science manifesto, "SuperFuel "challenges us to look back at what could have been different in history as well as forward to an energy revolution in the making.

This book examines nuclear oversight, planning and safety efforts at U.S. nuclear power reactors across the United States. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), an independent federal agency headed by five commissioners, licenses commercial nuclear power reactors and regulates and oversees their safe operation and security. An NRC task force has reviewed the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan and determined that the continued operation of existing U.S. nuclear power reactors and the licensing of new reactors do not pose an imminent risk to public health and safety. The disaster in Japan, caused by a tsunami, was more severe than the plant was designed to withstand, and has raised questions about whether a similar event could happen here. These questions were further highlighted by natural hazards that affected the sites of several U.S. commercial nuclear power plants and their reactors in 2011, including flooding near two power plants in Nebraska, severe storms at a plant in Alabama, and an earthquake at a plant in Virginia.

This book examines uranium mining and management in the United States with a focus on federal considerations. From 2005 to 2007, uranium prices increased from about $20 a pound to over $140 a pound, which led to renewed interest in uranium mining, both exploration and extraction, on federal land in the U.S. In early 2012, thousands of claims have been filed to explore for and potentially extract uranium on federal land. This increase in claims filed, has raised concerns about the potential impacts that an increased level of uranium exploration and extraction could have on the environment. During uranium extraction, the waste rock piles that are formed can introduce radionuclides (such as radium) and heavy metals (such as selenium and arsenic) into the environment. Before the mid-1970s, many mines on federal land, were abandoned without any reclamation, leaving a costly legacy of abandoned mines that pose potential health, safety, and environmental hazards.

The Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future was chartered to recommend a new strategy for managing the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. The Nation's failure to come to grips with the nuclear waste issue has already proved damaging and costly and it will be more damaging and more costly the longer it continues: damaging to prospects for maintaining a potentially important energy supply option for the future, damaging to state-federal relations and public confidence in the federal government's competence, and damaging to America's standing in the world -- not only as a source of nuclear technology and policy expertise but as a leader on global issues of nuclear safety, non-proliferation, and security. This book examines the use of nuclear energy as a low-carbon energy resource with a focus on the management of the nuclear fuel cycle, based on emerging technologies and developments.

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.

Weapons of mass destruction (WMD), especially in the hands of radical states and terrorists, represent a major threat to U.S. national security interests. Multilateral regimes were established to restrict trade in nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and missile technologies, and to monitor their civil applications. Congress may consider the efficacy of these regimes in considering the potential renewal of the Export Administration Act, as well as other proliferation-specific legislation in the 111th Congress. This book provides background and current status information on nuclear non-proliferation regimes which encompass several treaties, extensive multilateral and bilateral diplomatic agreements, multilateral organisations and domestic agencies, and the domestic laws of participating countries.

This book examines the Near-Term Task Force, which was established in response to Commission direction to conduct a systematic and methodical review of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission processes and regulations to determine whether the agency should make additional improvements to its regulatory system and to make recommendations to the Commission for its policy direction, in light of the accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant. The Task Force recognises that there likely will be more than 100 nuclear power plants operating throughout the United States for decades to come. In examining the Fukushima Dai-Ichi accident for insights for reactors in the United States, the Task Force addressed protecting against accidents resulting from natural phenomena, mitigating the consequences of such accidents, and ensuring emergency preparedness.

While it does not forego the seriousness associated with the topic, this book provides for an easy read that informs the reader of a variety of issues associated with the subject. Divided into short chapters, aspects such as technology, resource availability, economics, geopolitics and policies associated with nuclear power are dealt with in detail, but in a way that emphasizes readability. Contentious areas such as safety, waste management and the latest trends associated with them are laid bare for the reader. The book also dwells in depth on the shrill and seldom above-board debate on nuclear power and renewables. This is an invaluable companion for all those looking to understand the nature of the nuclear industry in the new millennium and the implications of international treaties such as the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Essays link Gaian science to such global environmental quandaries as climate change and biodiversity destruction, providing perspectives from science, philosophy, politics, and technology. Gaian theory, which holds that Earth's physical and biological processes are inextricably bound to form a self-regulating system, is more relevant than ever in light of increasing concerns about global climate change. The Gaian paradigm of Earth as a living system, first articulated by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in the 1970s, has inspired a burgeoning body of researchers working across disciplines that range from physics and biology to philosophy and politics. Gaia in Turmoil reflects this disciplinary richness and intellectual diversity, with contributions (including essays by both Lovelock and Margulis) that approach the topic from a wide variety of perspectives, discussing not only Gaian science but also global environmental problems and Gaian ethics and education. Contributors focus first on the science of Gaia, considering such topics as the workings of the biosphere, the planet's water supply, and evolution; then discuss Gaian perspectives on global environmental change, including biodiversity destruction and global warming; and finally explore the influence of Gaia on environmental policy, ethics, politics, technology, economics, and education. Gaia in Turmoil breaks new ground by focusing on global ecological problems from the perspectives of Gaian science and knowledge, focusing especially on the challenges of climate change and biodiversity destruction. Contributors David Abram, Donald Aitken, Connie Barlow, J. Baird Callicott, Bruce Clarke, Eileen Crist, Tim Foresman, Stephan Harding, Barbara Harwood, Tim Lenton, Eugene Linden, Karen Litfin, James Lovelock, Lynn Margulis, Bill McKibben, Martin Ogle, H. Bruce Rinker, Mitchell Thomashow, Tyler Volk, Hywel Williams

As oil reserves decline and the environment takes centre stage in public policy discussions, the merits and dangers of nuclear power and nuclear waste management are once again being debated. Nuclear Waste Management in Canada provides a critical counterpoint to the position of government and industry by examining not only the technical but also the social and ethical aspects of the issue. What do frequently used terms such as safety, risk, and acceptability really mean? And how and why did the public consultation process in Canada fail to address ethical and social issues? This timely collection defuses the uncertainty, ambiguity, and ignorance that surrounds discussions of nuclear energy.

An essential reference for journalists, activists, and students, this book presents scientifically accurate and accessible overviews of twenty-four of the most important issues in the nuclear realm, including: health effects, nuclear safety and engineering, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, nuclear medicine, food irradiation, transport of nuclear materials, spent fuel, nuclear weapons, and global warming. Each 'brief' is based on interviews with named scientists, engineers, or administrators in a nuclear specialty, and each has been reviewed by a team of independent experts. The objective is not to make a case for or against nuclear-related technologies, but rather to provide definitive background information. (The approach is based on that of ""The Reporter's Environmental Handbook"", published in 1988, which won a special award for journalism from the Sigma Delta Chi Society of professional journalists.) Other features of the book include: a glossary of hundreds of terms; an introduction to risk assessment; environmental and economic impacts, and public perceptions; an article by an experienced reporter with recommendations about how to cover nuclear issues; quick guides to the history of nuclear power in the United States, important federal legislation and regulations, nuclear position statements, and key organizations; and, references for print and electronic resources.

An essential reference for journalists, activists, and students, this book presents scientifically accurate and accessible overviews of twenty-four of the most important issues in the nuclear realm, including: health effects, nuclear safety and engineering, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, nuclear medicine, food irradiation, transport of nuclear materials, spent fuel, nuclear weapons, and global warming. Each 'brief' is based on interviews with named scientists, engineers, or administrators in a nuclear specialty, and each has been reviewed by a team of independent experts. The objective is not to make a case for or against nuclear-related technologies, but rather to provide definitive background information. (The approach is based on that of ""The Reporter's Environmental Handbook"", published in 1988, which won a special award for journalism from the Sigma Delta Chi Society of professional journalists.) Other features of the book include: a glossary of hundreds of terms; an introduction to risk assessment; environmental and economic impacts, and public perceptions; an article by an experienced reporter with recommendations about how to cover nuclear issues; quick guides to the history of nuclear power in the United States, important federal legislation and regulations, nuclear position statements, and key organizations; and, references for print and electronic resources.

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.

Using declassified government material James C. Oskins and Michael H. Maggelet have written the most comprehensive and detailed study of the thirty six known U.S. nuclear weapons accidents, known as "Broken Arrows." The authors have poured through government documents, aircraft accident reports, nuclear weapon incident and accident reports, and first hand accounts to shed light on the Department of Defense's vague summaries of nuclear weapons accidents. Their research dispels myths surrounding the Tybee and Goldsboro accidents, and provides great insight into the human element and the condition of individual weapons and AEC or DOD recovery operations regarding nearly every Broken Arrow. The underlying cause of such accidents, be it human error or equipment malfunction, is clearly shown in formerly secret reports and photographs.

Fears of climate change-induced catastrophe have caused many to consider nuclear energy as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. There are increasing calls for U.S. nuclear energy policy to promote a major expansion of nuclear-generated electricity in the United States and abroad. Charles D. Ferguson argues that such thinking neglects the risks and costs of massive nuclear expansion.

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.