ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 looks at nuclear reactor safety politics in the USA. The USA has by far the largest number of nuclear reactors in the world. It is also a country with public controversies about nuclear safety regulations involving multiple legal cases and claims and counterclaims about the efficacy and even necessity of different nuclear power safety standards. This chapter examines these claims. There is a discussion of the operation of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its philosophy, policies, and practices. There is an examination of how this relates to specific safety issues and also how this interacts with the USA’s attempts to build new reactors this century.
We find that whilst reactor safety rules increased in the 1970s it is questionable whether safety upgrades required by the NRC have been onerous for the nuclear industry. The NRC has been criticised for being slow to respond to post-Fukushima safety demands. It would be difficult to label the US nuclear regulatory system as one involving ‘containment’ of nuclear power, except in the most general sense. Rather, the individualist leanings of the dominant bias in the US nuclear regulatory system could be said to be leaning towards ‘development’.
