ABSTRACT
The siting and safety aspects of nuclear power stations in the US display both similarities and major differences from that of the UK. The US has a very different set of siting policies than that found in the UK. The history is somewhat similar, although the response to the safety problems have been different and, one suspects more sensible, in the US. The power utilities naturally preferred sites near to major load centres and in the 10 years leading up to the interim siting guidelines of 1962 the importance of the buffer zone concept was greatly reduced for essentially pragmatic reasons. In 1959 the Atomic Energy Commission issued proposed general siting criteria which recommended that reactors should be located a minimum of 10 to 20 miles from large cities. The Siting Policy Task Force make a number of recommendations concerning the development of siting criteria to be applied to new nuclear plants.
