Title Safe enough? : a history of nuclear power and accident risk / Thomas R. Wellock

Published Oakland, California : University of California Press, 2021

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Description 1 online resource Contents Preface -- When is a reactor safe? : the design basis accident -- The design basis in crisis -- Beyond the design basis : the reactor safety study -- Putting a number on "safe enough" -- Beyond design : toward risk-informed regulation -- Risk assessment beyond the NRC -- Risk-informed regulation and the Fukushima accident Summary "Since the dawn of the Atomic Age, nuclear experts have labored to imagine the unimaginable and prevent it. They confronted a deceptively simple question: when is a reactor "safe enough" to adequately protect the public from catastrophe? Some experts sought a deceptively simple answer: an estimate that the odds of a major accident were, literally, a million to one. Far from simple, this search to quantify accident risk proved to be a tremendously complex and controversial endeavor, one that altered the very notion of safety in nuclear power and beyond. Safe Enough? is the first history to trace these contentious efforts, following the Atomic Energy Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as their experts experimented with tools to quantify accident risk for use in regulation and to persuade the public of nuclear power's safety. The intense conflict over risk assessment's value offers a window on the history of the nuclear safety debate and the beliefs of its advocates and opponents. Across seven decades and the accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, the quantification of risk has transformed society's understanding of the hazards posed by complex technologies, and what it takes to make them safe enough"-- Provided by publisher Notes "Published in 2021 by University of California Press in association with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)"--Title page verso Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record and CIP data provided by publisher Subject Nuclear power plants -- Risk assessment -- United States -- History Nuclear power plants -- United States -- Safety measures HISTORY / United States / 21st Century Nuclear power plants -- Risk assessment Nuclear power plants -- Safety measures United States Genre/Form History Form Electronic book LC no. 2020029627 ISBN 0520381165 9780520381162

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