ABSTRACT
Numerous experts have analyzed organizational behavior, the nuclear regulation process, the public’s involvement in national decision making, and the conflict and consensus process. The distrust of nuclear power by Dr. John Gofman, former medical physicist for Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and an anti-nuclear activist, is captured in a brief vignette about his early involvement in the nuclear age. In June 1976 Californians cast their votes on the California Nuclear Initiative, a decision that was to determine the fate of nuclear power in that state. The movement gained momentum in Britain where there are still very powerful anti-nuclear lobbies who question the need for nuclear power and who continue to criticize the site selection procedure for specific reactors. The roles of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and judiciary are examined very closely. Citizens groups cause long and costly delays in the construction and licensing of nuclear power plants and these costs come right back to the public.
