Download or read book Three Mile Island written by Grace Halden and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-06-27 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three Mile Island explains the far-reaching consequences of the partial meltdown of Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island power plant on March 28, 1979. Though the disaster was ultimately contained, the fears it triggered had an immediate and lasting impact on public attitudes towards nuclear energy in the United States. In this volume, Grace Halden contextualizes the events at Three Mile Island and the ensuing media coverage, offering a gripping portrait of a nation coming to terms with technological advances that inspired both awe and terror. Including a selection of key primary documents, this book offers a fascinating resource for students of the history of science, technology, the environment, and Cold War culture.
Download or read book Three Mile Island written by J. Samuel Walker and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2004-03-22 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On March 28, 1979, the worst accident in the history of commercial nuclear power in the United States occurred at Three Mile Island. For five days, the citizens of central Pennsylvania and the entire world, amid growing alarm, followed the efforts of authorities to prevent the crippled plant from spewing dangerous quantities of radiation into the environment. This book is the first comprehensive, moment-by-moment account of the causes, context, and consequences of the Three Mile Island crisis. Walker captures the high human drama surrounding the accident, sets it in the context of the heated debate over nuclear power in the seventies, and analyzes the social, technical, and political issues it raised. He also looks at the aftermath of the accident on the surrounding area, including studies of its long-term health effects on the population.--From publisher description.
Download or read book Contesting The Future Of Nuclear Power A Critical Global Assessment Of Atomic Energy written by Benjamin K Sovacool and published by World Scientific Publishing Company. This book was released on 2011-05-05 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a concise but rigorous appraisal about the future of nuclear power and the presumed nuclear renaissance. It does so by assessing the technical, economic, environmental, political, and social risks related to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle, from uranium mills and mines to nuclear reactors and spent fuel storage facilities. In each case, the book argues that the costs of nuclear power significantly outweigh its benefits. It concludes by calling for investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency as a better path towards an affordable, secure, and socially acceptable future.The prospect of a global nuclear renaissance could change the way that energy is produced and used the world over. Sovacool takes a hard look at who would benefit — mostly energy companies and manufacturers — and who would suffer — mostly taxpayers, those living near nuclear facilities, and electricity customers. This book is a must-read for anyone even remotely concerned about a sustainable energy future, and also for those with a specific interest in modern nuclear power plants.
Download or read book Nuclear Power and the Environment written by Royal Society of Chemistry (Great Britain) and published by Royal Society of Chemistry. This book was released on 2011 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reviews the political and social context for nuclear power generation, the nuclear fuel cycles and their implications for the environment.
Download or read book Power to Save the World written by Gwyneth Cravens and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An informed look at the myths and fears surrounding nuclear energy, and a practical, politically realistic solution to global warming and our energy needs. Faced by the world's oil shortages and curious about alternative energy sources, Gwyneth Cravens skeptically sets out to find the truth about nuclear energy. Her conclusion: it is a totally viable and practical solution to global warming. In the end, we see that if we are to care for subsequent generations, embracing nuclear energy is an ethical imperative.
Download or read book A Moment of Crisis written by Marion Creekmore and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2009-04-24 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In A Moment of Crisis, Marion V. Creekmore, Jr. tells the story of Jimmy Carter's dramatic intervention in the 1994 North Korean nuclear crisis and shows how Carter prevented what he had determined was an almost certain war. Writing with the cooperation of President Carter, and drawing on a large amount of primary source material that has never been used before, Creekmore, who accompanied Carter into North Korea, delivers a gripping narrative of the former President on one of his most remarkable missions, a clear-eyed investigation into the controversies and successes of the mission and others like it, and an illuminating look at how to best handle North Korea and other "rogue regimes." This is essential reading for anyone interested in diplomacy of the highest order, how Jimmy Carter has accomplished the extraordinary achievements of his post-Presidency, the circumstances that can lead to war, and the resolve that it takes to avoid it.
Download or read book Achieving the Paris Climate Agreement Goals written by Sven Teske and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 535 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book presents detailed pathways to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2050, globally and across ten geographical regions. Based on state-of-the-art scenario modelling, it provides the vital missing link between renewable energy targets and the measures needed to achieve them. Bringing together the latest research in climate science, renewable energy technology, employment and resource impacts, the book breaks new ground by covering all the elements essential to achieving the ambitious climate mitigation targets set out in the Paris Climate Agreement. For example, sectoral implementation pathways, with special emphasis on differences between developed and developing countries and regional conditions, provide tools to implement the scenarios globally and domestically. Non-energy greenhouse gas mitigation scenarios define a sustainable pathway for land-use change and the agricultural sector. Furthermore, results of the impact of the scenarios on employment and mineral and resource requirements provide vital insight on economic and resource management implications. The book clearly demonstrates that the goals of the Paris Agreement are achievable and feasible with current technology and are beneficial in economic and employment terms. It is essential reading for anyone with responsibility for implementing renewable energy or climate targets internationally or domestically, including climate policy negotiators, policy-makers at all levels of government, businesses with renewable energy commitments, researchers and the renewable energy industry. Part 2 of this title can be found at this Link: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-99177-7
Download or read book The Final Energy Crisis written by Sheila Newman and published by Pluto Press (UK). This book was released on 2008-07-20 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thoroughly revised and updated edition of this comprehensive survey of resource depletion.
Download or read book Nuclear Power A Very Short Introduction written by John Maxwell Irvine and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-26 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the increasing cost of fossil fuels and concerns about the security of their future supply. However, the term 'nuclear power' causes anxiety in many people and there is confusion concerning the nature and extent of the associated risks.
Download or read book Nuclear Power in Stagnation written by David Toke and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-08 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book studies the extent to which nuclear safety issues have contributed towards the stagnation of nuclear power development around the world, and accounts for differences in safety regulations in different countries. In order to understand why nuclear development has not met widespread expectations, this book focusses on six key countries with active nuclear power programmes: the USA, China, France, South Korea, the UK, and Russia. The authors integrate cultural theory and theory of regulation, and examine the links between pressures of cultural bias on regulatory outcomes and political pressures which have led to increased safety requirements and subsequent economic costs. They discover that although nuclear safety is an important upward driver of costs in the nuclear power industry, this is influenced by the inherent need to control potentially dangerous reactions rather than stricter nuclear safety standards. The findings reveal that differences in the strictness of nuclear safety regulations between different countries can be understood by understanding differences in cultural contexts and the changes in this over time. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and policymakers working on energy policy and regulation, environmental politics and policy, and environment and sustainability more generally.
Download or read book Going Critical written by Joel S. Wit and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004-04-19 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A decade before being proclaimed part of the "axis of evil," North Korea raised alarms in Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo as the pace of its clandestine nuclear weapons program mounted. When confronted by evidence of its deception in 1993, Pyongyang abruptly announced its intention to become the first nation ever to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, defying its earlier commitments to submit its nuclear activities to full international inspections. U.S. intelligence had revealed evidence of a robust plutonium production program. Unconstrained, North Korea's nuclear factory would soon be capable of building about thirty Nagasaki-sized nuclear weapons annually. The resulting arsenal would directly threaten the security of the United States and its allies, while tempting cash-starved North Korea to export its deadly wares to America's most bitter adversaries. In Go ing Critical, three former U.S. officials who played key roles in the nuclear crisis trace the intense efforts that led North Korea to freeze—and pledge ultimately to dismantle—its dangerous plutonium production program under international inspection, while the storm clouds of a second Korean War gathered. Drawing on international government documents, memoranda, cables, and notes, the authors chronicle the complex web of diplomacy--from Seoul, Tokyo, and Beijing to Geneva, Moscow, and Vienna and back again—that led to the negotiation of the 1994 Agreed Framework intended to resolve this nuclear standoff. They also explore the challenge of weaving together the military, economic, and diplomatic instruments employed to persuade North Korea to accept significant constraints on its nuclear activities, while deterring rather than provoking a violent North Korean response. Some ten years after these intense negotiations, the Agreed Framework lies abandoned. North Korea claims to possess some nuclear weapons, while threatening to produce even more. The story of the 1994 confrontatio
Download or read book Crisis Contained written by Philip Louis Cantelon and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What escaped at Three Mile Island was not only radiation, but, more importantly for the nuclear power industry, public confidence in technology and technocracy," report Cantelon and Williams in their detailed account of the response of the Department of Energy to America's worst civilian nuclear power accident. What happened at Three Mile Island was a technological failure of monstrous proportions. "Yet," the authors contend, "the serious extent of the accident was caused by human error: technocrats blundered, lost control of technology, and, refusing to admit it, gave confusing, inconsistent, and jargon-laden explanations." There was a welter of information and misinformation. To sift out the truth that would enable them to write the history of this contemporary event, Cantelon and Williams relied on unpublished archival materials--including logs of scientists and government officials--on oral interviews with participants, and on reports of other government agencies. The result is a significant history, one that shows how scientists and politicians responded to the unbelievable and unexpected as they tried to deal with a highly technical event in the glare of television lights and under the inquisitive and fearful eyes of the public. The danger was never real, yet for the nation and certainly for the immediate community around Three Mile Island, risk perceived was risk endured. Many of the residents of what became a "war zone" will never be the same, though radiation never touched them. Imagination and unconscious fears were far more important than any accurate perception of risk after a Nuclear Regulatory Commission official usedthe term meltdown at a Friday afternoon news conference.
Download or read book Nuclear Roulette written by Gar Smith and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear power is not clean, cheap, or safe. With Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, the nuclear industry's record of catastrophic failures now averages one major disaster every decade. After three US-designed plants exploded in Japan, many countries moved to abandon reactors for renewables. In the United States, however, powerful corporations and a compliant government still defend nuclear power-while promising billion-dollar bailouts to operators. Each new disaster demonstrates that the nuclear industry and governments lie to "avoid panic," to preserve the myth of "safe, clean" nuclear power, and to sustain government subsidies. Tokyo and Washington both covered up Fukushima's radiation risks and-when confronted with damning evidence-simply raised the levels of "acceptable" risk to match the greater levels of exposure. Nuclear Roulette dismantles the core arguments behind the nuclear-industrial complex's "Nuclear Renaissance." While some critiques are familiar-nuclear power is too costly, too dangerous, and too unstable-others are surprising: Nuclear Roulette exposes historic links to nuclear weapons, impacts on Indigenous lands and lives, and the ways in which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission too often takes its lead from industry, rewriting rules to keep failing plants in compliance. Nuclear Roulette cites NRC records showing how corporations routinely defer maintenance and lists resulting "near-misses" in the US, which average more than one per month. Nuclear Roulette chronicles the problems of aging reactors, uncovers the costly challenge of decommissioning, explores the industry's greatest seismic risks-not on California's quake-prone coast but in the Midwest and Southeast-and explains how solar flares could black out power grids, causing the world's 400-plus reactors to self-destruct. This powerful exposé concludes with a roundup of proven and potential energy solutions that can replace nuclear technology with a "Renewable Renaissance," combined with conservation programs that can cleanse the air, and cool the planet.
Download or read book Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety of U S Nuclear Plants written by National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety and Security of U.S. Nuclear Plants and published by National Academy Press. This book was released on 2014-10-29 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami sparked a humanitarian disaster in northeastern Japan. They were responsible for more than 15,900 deaths and 2,600 missing persons as well as physical infrastructure damages exceeding $200 billion. The earthquake and tsunami also initiated a severe nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Three of the six reactors at the plant sustained severe core damage and released hydrogen and radioactive materials. Explosion of the released hydrogen damaged three reactor buildings and impeded onsite emergency response efforts. The accident prompted widespread evacuations of local populations, large economic losses, and the eventual shutdown of all nuclear power plants in Japan. "Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety and Security of U.S. Nuclear Plants" is a study of the Fukushima Daiichi accident. This report examines the causes of the crisis, the performance of safety systems at the plant, and the responses of its operators following the earthquake and tsunami. The report then considers the lessons that can be learned and their implications for U.S. safety and storage of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste, commercial nuclear reactor safety and security regulations, and design improvements. "Lessons Learned" makes recommendations to improve plant systems, resources, and operator training to enable effective ad hoc responses to severe accidents. This report's recommendations to incorporate modern risk concepts into safety regulations and improve the nuclear safety culture will help the industry prepare for events that could challenge the design of plant structures and lead to a loss of critical safety functions. In providing a broad-scope, high-level examination of the accident, "Lessons Learned" is meant to complement earlier evaluations by industry and regulators. This in-depth review will be an essential resource for the nuclear power industry, policy makers, and anyone interested in the state of U.S. preparedness and response in the face of crisis situations.
Download or read book Energy written by Richard Rhodes and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “meticulously researched” (The New York Times Book Review) examination of energy transitions over time and an exploration of the current challenges presented by global warming, a surging world population, and renewable energy—from Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author Richard Rhodes. People have lived and died, businesses have prospered and failed, and nations have risen to world power and declined, all over energy challenges. Through an unforgettable cast of characters, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes explains how wood gave way to coal and coal made room for oil, as we now turn to natural gas, nuclear power, and renewable energy. “Entertaining and informative…a powerful look at the importance of science” (NPR.org), Rhodes looks back on five centuries of progress, through such influential figures as Queen Elizabeth I, King James I, Benjamin Franklin, Herman Melville, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford. In his “magisterial history…a tour de force of popular science” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Rhodes shows how breakthroughs in energy production occurred; from animal and waterpower to the steam engine, from internal-combustion to the electric motor. He looks at the current energy landscape, with a focus on how wind energy is competing for dominance with cast supplies of coal and natural gas. He also addresses the specter of global warming, and a population hurtling towards ten billion by 2100. Human beings have confronted the problem of how to draw energy from raw material since the beginning of time. Each invention, each discovery, each adaptation brought further challenges, and through such transformations, we arrived at where we are today. “A beautifully written, often inspiring saga of ingenuity and progress…Energy brings facts, context, and clarity to a key, often contentious subject” (Booklist, starred review).
Download or read book Meltdown written by Yoichi Funabashi and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2021-03-02 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The human drama, and long-term lessons, of the Fukushima nuclear disaster The Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011 presented an enormous challenge even to Japan, one of the world's most advanced and organized countries. Failures at all levels—of both the government and the private sector—worsened the human and economic impact of the disaster and ensured that the consequences would continue for many years to come. Based on interviews with more than 300 government officials, power plant operators, and military personnel during the years since the disaster, Meltdown is a meticulous recounting and analysis of the human stories behind the response to the Fukushima disaster. While the people battling to deal with the crisis at the site of the power plant were risking their lives, the government at the highest levels in Tokyo was in disarray and the utility company that operated the plants seemed focused more on power struggles with the government than on dealing with the crisis. The author, one of Japan's most eminent journalists, provides an unrivaled chronological account of the immediate two weeks of human struggle to contain man-made technology that was overwhelmed by nature. Yoichi Funabashi gives insights into why Japan's decisionmaking process failed almost as dramatically as had the Fukushima nuclear reactors, which went into meltdown following a major tsunami. Funabashi uses the Fukushima experience to draw lessons on leadership, governance, disaster resilience, and crisis management—lessons that have universal application and pertinence for an increasingly technology-driven and interconnected global society.
Download or read book Nuclear Energy written by Charles D. Ferguson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-17 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally perceived as a cheap and plentiful source of power, the commercial use of nuclear energy has been controversial for decades. Worries about the dangers that nuclear plants and their radioactive waste posed to nearby communities grew over time, and plant construction in the United States virtually died after the early 1980s. The 1986 disaster at Chernobyl only reinforced nuclear power's negative image. Yet in the decade prior to the Japanese nuclear crisis of 2011, sentiment about nuclear power underwent a marked change. The alarming acceleration of global warming due to the burning of fossil fuels and concern about dependence on foreign fuel has led policymakers, climate scientists, and energy experts to look once again at nuclear power as a source of energy. In this accessible overview, Charles D. Ferguson provides an authoritative account of the key facts about nuclear energy. What is the origin of nuclear energy? What countries use commercial nuclear power, and how much electricity do they obtain from it? How can future nuclear power plants be made safer? What can countries do to protect their nuclear facilities from military attacks? How hazardous is radioactive waste? Is nuclear energy a renewable energy source? Featuring a discussion of the recent nuclear crisis in Japan and its ramifications, Ferguson addresses these questions and more in Nuclear Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, a book that is essential for anyone looking to learn more about this important issue. What Everyone Needs to Know® is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.
