ABSTRACT

In the arena of US energy policy, no energy source continues to be as controversial as nuclear power. Most observers agree that the future of nuclear power in the United States has for some time hinged on finding solutions to the industry’s four key problems: safety, wastes, economics, and public acceptance. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the industry generally separate unplanned events at nuclear power plants into two broad categories: “incidents” and “accidents.” The unusually rapid development of nuclear power was the result of broader social and political concerns that dominated the postwar era. In the early technology development —phase of the US nuclear power industry, when other dominant concerns created a headlong momentum to proceed, safety was a distinct afterthought. In the early 1980s, the NRC embarked on several new approaches to the issue of accidents and plant safety, largely in response to the Three Mile Island accident.