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Outlook for Nuclear Power Presentations at the Technical Session of the Annual Meeting--November 1, 1979, Washington, D.C. (1980) / Chapter Skim
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Risk and Democracy
Pages 26-31

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Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 26...
... I think our role is important, but often misunderstood. And the judicial perspective has significant consequences for engineers and other experts who contribute to public decisions about risks, such as licensing a nuclear power plant.
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From page 27...
... Part of the disclosure requirement I have described falls on the agency decisionmakers that Congress made responsible for licensing nuclear power plants, approving waste disposal plants, and the like. Yet there is an equally important implication for your role.
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From page 28...
... Loss of public confidence is cited by the Kemeny Commission as one of the worst problems with the nuclear power industry and its regulators. Alvin Weinberg, a founding father of the Nuclear Age, I think rightly warns that nuclear power will be rejected politically not because people "will actually be hurt," but because "people will be scared out of their wits." In other ages, and other cultures, the decisions of a wise man, or shaman, would resolve all doubts.
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From page 29...
... It has taken the industry a long time to take the problem seriously, even though it has been the public's major concern about nuclear power for years. This problem came to my attention in a case in our court, Natural Resources Defense Council v.
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From page 30...
... He wrote that the value system of the engineer includes acceptance of "an uncertain level of risk" because his decisions must be quick to be cost-effective. He said that compared to other risks associated with nuclear power, the waste disposal problem is "minute" to the engineer.
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From page 31...
... Disclosure may scare people. It may scare the public to hear, as the Kemeny Commission has reported, that engineers have not designed sufficient safety checks for many foreseeable human errors in operating nuclear power plants.
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Key Terms

  • nuclear waste
  • public confidence
  • public decisionmaking
  • value choices
  • kemeny commission

  • safety checks
  • nuclear reactor
  • public fears
  • critical value
  • power plant

  • value judgments
  • administrative action
  • plane crashes
  • island incident
  • nuclear age

  • public education
  • taking public
  • public risk
  • nuclear plant
  • instill public

  • public servants
  • public consequences
  • public decisionmaker
  • public decisions
  • licensing nuclear

  • eliminate public
  • public review
  • public values
  • nuclear reactors
  • major public


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