Nuclear Power
(see also Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Waste & Energy Self-Sufficiency)
Basics
103 nuclear power plants produce about 20% of the electricity in the US. The last to go on-line was Watts Bar in Tennessee in 1996 -- after 23 years of construction & billions in cost over-rides.
On the Web: Articles
On the Web: Specialized Sites
Nuclear Control Institute. Monitors industry efforts to weaken power plant security requirements.
Nuclear Energy Institute. Industry's Washington lobby group.
Rachel's Environment & Health News
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Government oversight agency.
In the Library: Articles
Borenstein, Seth. "Nuclear power shows signs of renaissance," San Jose Mercury News (6/15/03):6A. Entergy, Exelon & Dominion Resources seeking licenses to build plants, a campaign largely abandoned after Three Mile Island near-meltdown in 1979. Cost overrides a big factor.
Ehrlich, Anne H. "Chernobyl, cancer, & cheating," Amicus Journal 8,2 (fall 86).
Davidson, Osha Gray. "Dirty Secrets: no president has gone after the nation's environmental laws with the same fury as George W. Bush & none has so been so adept at staying under the radar," Mother Jones (9-10/2003): 49-53.
Grossman, Karl. "Red tape & radioactivity," Common Cause 12,4 (7-8/86).
Khripunov, Igor & Maria Katsva. "Russia's nuclear industry: the next generation," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 58,2 (3-4/2002):51-57. After Chernobyl.
Kolbert, Elizabeth. "Indian Point blank," New Yorker (3/3/03): 36-41. Concerns with a nuclear power plant on the Hudson.
Makarushka, Mary. "Journey to Chernobyl," On Wisconsin (spr 05):40-45,63. Legacies of 1986 explosion & fire.
Schumacher, Geoff. "Dumping on Nevada," In These Times (3/4/02):5.
Shambroom, Paul. Face to Face with the Bomb: Nuclear Reality after the Cold War (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2003).
Stranahan, Susan Q. "Reactor revival," Mother Jones (11-12/01):30-33. Bush administration plans to give nuclear power in the US a new lease on life.
In the Library: Non-Fiction Books
Alexievich, Svetlana. Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster [1997] (Normal IL: Dalkey Archive, 2005).
Butler, Richard. Fatal Choice: Nuclear Weapons Survival or Sentence (?: Westview, 2003).
Commoner, Barry. The Politics of Energy (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979).
Grossman, Karl. Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know about Nuclear Power (Sag Harbor NY, 1982).
Hertsgaard, Mark. Nuclear Inc.: The Men & Money behind Nuclear Energy (NY: Pantheon, 1983).
Loeb, Paul Rogat. Nuclear Culture: Living & Working in the World's Largest Atomic Complex [1982] (Philadelphia: New Society, 1986). Weapons & energy research at Pacific Northwest Laboratory.
Mazuzan, George T. & J. Samuel Walker. Controlling the Atom: The Beginnings of Nuclear Regulation, 1946-1962 (Berkeley: U. California, 1985).
Nader, Ralph & John Abbots. The Menace of Atomic Energy (rev. ed. NY: Norton, 1979).
Perin, Constance. Shouldering Risks: The Culture of Control in the Nuclear Power Industry (Princeton NJ: Princeton U., 2005).
Walker, J. Samuel. Containing the Atom: Nuclear Regulation in a Changing Environment (Berkeley: U. California, 1992).
__________. A Short History of Nuclear Regulation, 1946-1990 (Washington: US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 1993).
Wasserman, Harvey & Norman Solomon, with Robert Alvarez & Eleanor Walters. Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America's Experience with Atomic Radiation (NY, 1982).
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CD & Audio
Film & Video
"Chernobyl: Ten Days for Disaster" [?], by BBC Television, 30m. From Films for the Humanities & Sciences. How human error, design flaws & lack of safety devices led to meltdown; & consequences for regional & world environments.
"Silkwood" [1983], dir. Mike Nichols, ?m. In video stores. Oklahoma nuclear plant worker grows militant in response to endangerment of workers' health by radiation, & dies in mysterious circumstances.
"Three Mile Island Revisited: An Eco Expose with Karl Grossman"
(1992), 29m. From Green Sphere, Inc.