As particularly important, I would single out the contribution by Dr A.M. Weinberg, of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dr Weinberg assures us that "a properly operating nuclear power plant and its sub-systems (including transport, waste disposal, chemical plants, and even mining) are far less damaging to the environment than any coal fired plant would be." In particular, any form of a major failure can be mitigated by having "two entirely independent safety systems that work on totally different principles." However, Dr Weinberg does see the increasing volume of waste as a problem. The problem here is not where to dump the highly toxic wastes - he would place them in specially dug mines - but how to ensure their continual safety. His method of disposal, he says, would require "some kind of surveillance in perpetuity"
This point Is taken up by Professor Shinn, who asks the following question about the security restrictions necessary for surveillance: "What happens to personal freedom in an age when technological operations are so intricate that concentrated authority must impose controls?" Even after the nuclear disaster in Russia, this question is at least as important as the debate about safety factors in nuclear plants. It seems to be the case that Government aided nuclear industries, such as British Nuclear Fuels, are becoming more concerned with preventing leaks of Information than actual leaks of radiation - ostensibly because they do not want to spread undue alarm about events which have been blown up out of all proportion. What is worrying about reported leaks of radioactive material is not so much whether the conflicting claims are right, but the measures being taken to prevent any genuine investigation of what has actually occurred. Instead, the problem has been seen by the nuclear industry simply as one of poor public relations and poor security. When the industry has the backing of the state, this might well give rise to what Professor Shinn calls "a heightened authoritarianism that bears down unduly on the weak."
This is an interesting and lively book which, in general, is optimistic about future energy from nuclear power. However, I think that one of the contributors has a good point when he cautions against overweening optimism, quoting the historian Herbert Butterfield; " The hardest strokes of heaven fall in history upon those who imagine they can control things in a sovereign manner - reaching out into the future with the wrong kind of farsightedness, and gambling on a lot of risky calculation in which there must never be single mistake. "