Books
Nuclear power's threat to health, safety, and freedom Ever since the explosion of the first atomic bombs in 1945, the peoples of the world have sought to free themselves from the threat of nuclear weapons. International bodies repeatedly have endorsed the principle of nuclear disarmament, and nuclear disarmament has been the professed policy of all governments, large and small. Nevertheless, the stockpiles of nuclear weapons have increased in numbers, size, and effectiveness to the point that there are now a few tons of nuclear explosives for every inhabitant of the Earth. This discrepancy between goals and results suggests, at the very least, that control of nuclear weapons is not a simple problem. Thus, people of good will, even though agreeing on goals, may reasonably differ on the proper means to attain them. In particular, they may differ on whether the nuclear power plants that are the result of the 1953 Atoms for Peace movement help or hinder the control of nuclear weapons. It will be recalled that President Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace program—and establishment of the International Atomic Energy Agency to administer it—was endorsed by a unanimous vote of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Conversely, the current Administration's efforts to halt the development of fuel reprocessing and breeder reactors—in support of its policy of preventing proliferation of nuclear weapons— were soundly rejected by the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation, in which 46 nations and five international organizations participated. These bodies would appear to represent the opinion and conscience of humanity with at least as much legitimacy as, say, the Clamshell Alliance or other activist groups opposed to nuclear power. Nevertheless, the books reviewed here—"The New Tyranny: How Nuclear Power Enslaves Us" by Robert Jungk, and "Nuclear Lessons: An Examination of Nuclear Power's Safety, Economic, and Political Record" by Richard Curtis and Elizabeth Hogan, with Shel Horowitz—are written as though such issues as nuclear proliferation and reactor safety have people of good will on only one side, the antinuclear power side. The
Two books that indict nuclear power technology as inhuman and liable to human error are viewed as biased and misleading "The New Tyranny: How Nuclear Power Enslaves Us" by Robert Jungk, Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1979, 204 pages, $10; and "Nuclear Lessons: An Examination of Nuclear Power's Safety, Economic, and Political Record" by Richard Curtis and Elizabeth Hogan, with Shel Horowitz, Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, Pa., 1980, 285 pages, $16.95 Reviewed by Karl P. Cohen, who has played a key role for more than four decades in nuclear development, notably for electric power generation, including direction of programs at the Manhattan Project and at General Electric and service as president of the American Nuclear Society. Retired as chief scientist at GE in 1978, he is now a consultant. other side consists of the Establishment and its venal scientific hirelings, whose opinions are deservedly ignored. Thus, the opinions of prominent antinuclear scientists such as John W. Gofman, Ernest J. Sternglass, and Helen Caldicott are quoted on the effects of low-level radiation. But the books do not mention the markedly different consensus of the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements, the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation, the Medical Research Council and the National Radiological Protection Board in the U.K., the U.N. Scientific Committee on Effects of Atomic Radiation, and the International Commission on Radiological Protection. On reactor safety, Jungk recommends for further reading Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Henry Kendall's critique of
the American Physical Society's study on light-water reactor safety—but not the APS report itself. Furthermore, Theodore Taylor is quoted to prove that terrorists easily could make nuclear bombs; but other authorities who hold different views, such as Hans Bethe and Andrei Sakharov, are not referenced. Sloppy editing in both books (for example, the Mutsu is a nuclear-powered freighter, not a submarine; the Windscale reactor is not a breeder reactor; the yield of a reactor-grade plutonium bomb is in the neighborhood of 1 kiloton, not 10 to 20 kilotons), together with the selective use of references, does nothing to dissipate the impression that in these books scholarship is less important than ideology. "The New Tyranny" is described on its jacket as "a frightening indictment," and, indeed, it is written in that style. It was published originally in West Germany in 1977 under the title, "Der Atom-Staat," and has had considerable impact in Europe. Jungk, a West German historian and teacher, has written six books, including a well-known account of the beginning of the atomic age, "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns." The book begins with a description of what it depicts as inhuman technology at the La Hague reprocessing plant in France. (Imagine requiring workers to wear protective garments!) Perversely, this inhuman technology is beset with human errors. In the best style of "60 Minutes" television exposé journalism, the testimony of anonymous engineers and disillusioned workers is given; Jungk prudently steers clear of comments from management (otherwise identified as the public relations staff). The awkward circumstances that only one labor union (the Confédération Démocratique Française du Travail)— and not the largest and most powerful French union by far, the Confédération Générale du Travail—is active in opposition to the La Hague plant is tactfully glossed over. Jungk's next chapter, entitled "The Gamblers," uses the image of a roulette wheel to describe nuclear reactor accident probabilities. (A similar chapter in the book "Nuclear Lessons" is entitled "Nuclear Roulette.") Oct. 13, 1980 C&EN
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Since a roulette wheel has only 37 numbers—and the chances of a nuclear accident are far smaller—this is a tendentious analogy. We then come to the heart of Jungk's indictment: "nuclear energy provides justification for the power elite of industrial nations to pursue . . . an authoritarian form of government." Indeed, "The New Tyranny" he fears is that development of nuclear power will require surrender of liberties and democratic freedoms, and creation of a regimented society. He buttresses his argument by describing psychological screening tests for plant operators and what he views as intimidation of nuclear employees (including two separate and mutually exclusive theories of why Karen Silkwood's accidental death actually was murder. Silkwood, a Kerr-McGee Corp. employee, had been charging company safety violations in handling plutonium.) He also describes the dangers of nuclear proliferation, outlines some lurid scenarios of atomic terrorism, and gives a horrifying description of the surveillance procedures and devices that are employed to protect atomic plants and even to prevent airplane hijacking. Somewhere in the course of these wanderings, we attend the funeral of two West German workers who died in a cloud of steam "intensely hot at 285° C and mildly radioactive," and we detour into the West German export to South Africa and Brazil of the Becker jet-nozzle separation technology for separating uranium-235 from uranium-238. We also learn that "the nuclear plague is seen to be spreading in three ways: • Vertical proliferation—an expanding arsenal of nuclear weapons by states which already have them. • Horizontal proliferation—the acquisition of atomic weapons by nations that did not have them. • Nongovernmental proliferation—nuclear weapons in the hands of both external and internal terrorists; certainly the most ghastly and difficult-to-control form of proliferation" (my emphasis added). It is hard to see how Jungk acquires the certainty that nongovernmental proliferation, which is so far only a hypothesis, is harder to stop than forms of proliferation that are already fact. Jungk does not broach the issue of why the Soviet Union, which needs no further excuse to be a police state, is developing nuclear power. "Nuclear Lessons" addresses reactor safety and sets out to supply a historical overview of the development of nuclear power. One author, Curtis, is a writer and president of a literary agency; Hogan is a writer and 30
C&ENOct. 13, 1980
member of several environmentalist groups. The book gallops along a path from the guilt complexes of the Manhattan Project scientists to the unique charter (what it calls "Absolute Power") of the Atomic Energy Commission to the 1954 modifications of the McMahon Act on control of atomic energy. Radiation hazards are introduced in a chapter attractively entitled "Thresholds of Agony," which begins with a clinical account of death by exposure to 600 roentgens, followed by an interpretation ôf low-level radiation by Sternglass and others. In "Nuclear Roulette," the Brookhaven report of 1957 on the consequences of a reactor accident and its later update are introduced. But its limiting case calculation is taken instead as a prediction. (This case assumes 50% of all fission products are released, the mechanism being a chemical reaction between a metallic fuel alloy and steam, which destroys the containment and makes an aerosol of the nonvolatile fission products. However, in fact, commercial power reactors use uranium dioxide fuel, which is an inert ceramic with a melting point of 5000° F.) The Rasmussen report is acknowledged just long enough to be refuted by long extracts from a book by nuclear engineer Richard Webb (of whom more later). Having established that nuclear power plants threaten unprecedented disaster, "Nuclear Lessons" concludes that "a trivial misjudgment or a moment's inattention can spell doom." The authors are then astonished to discover that humans in the nuclear industry make errors. Mostly this occurs because the desire to beat swords into plowshares has been contaminated by the greed of the utility lobby. Utilities particularly like nuclear power because "a utility will calculate its rates based on a percentage of capital costs. A nuclear plant costs far more to build then any other type of power plant. This means higher rates and higher profits." This hardly is consistent with another claim in the book that utilities try to lower costs by shoddy workmanship and by cutting corners on safety, or with its argument that they want to site plants recklessly close to population centers to avoid investment in expensive power lines. Without omitting any of the other familiar arguments against nuclear power, Curtis and Hogan consider the economics of nuclear power to be a particularly vulnerable area. Again, this is proven by reference exclusively to their own experts. The plant own-
ers are, of course, unworthy of being consulted. The authors repeat the claim that the civilian nuclear power program consumes more electricity than it produces, although it has been well established that the startup energy investment for nuclear power is smaller than for many of the solar alternatives. With the current introduction of the centrifuge enrichment process for preparing uranium-235, which consumes less than 5% of the energy of the diffusion process, this advantage will be increased. Curtis and Hogan also claim that the government operates diffusion plants to enrich uranium for the utility industry and thereby subsidize the industry. The truth is that except for the current expansion, the diffusion plants were planned entirely for military purposes, before the power industry was launched. With the successful development of the hydrogen bomb, 90% of the military demand evaporated. Without the civilian demand, the plants would be idle. Who is subsidizing whom? "Nuclear Lessons" concludes with an "Afterword" by Richard Webb that describes various "lucky" circumstances which averted a catastrophe at Three Mile Island. The tone of this may be gauged by listing some of what he calls "lucky circumstances": The pressure relief valve stuck open; the auxiliary feedwater system failed; the auxiliary feedwater system was fixed in eight minutes; the reactor scrammed (shut down); the crumbled fuel did not form a critical mass to start a runaway reaction. If the evil genius behind the whole nuclear power program is the profit motive of U.S. utilities, we are left wondering about the programs of the state-owned French and British power authorities. We might wonder still more about the Soviet program, in a country with enormous reserves of coal, oil, and gas, and no profit motive at all. The basis for widespread opposition to nuclear power appears to lie elsewhere. The world lives under the shadow of the nuclear stockpiles of the superpowers. Hostility toward nuclear power stations is in large measure a transference of opposition to the growth of these stockpiles, which the individual is unable to influence, to opposition to the more accessible local power station. Here one can vent one's fear and frustration. This is understandable. But as we have seen above, some of its manifestations are not entirely rational. A terrorist atomic bomb based on stolen reactor plutonium or the larger 235 U weapon wielded by a third world
nation against one of its neighbors could cause great destruction, suf fering, and chaos. But the exchange of 10,000 megatons of nuclear-tipped missiles by the superpowers would threaten the survival of the human race. There is a difference. Many people seek to equate the two by the following argument: A nuclear explosion anywhere lowers the threshold against the use of nu clear weapons by the superpowers. This statement has been repeated many times without substantial challenge, but the proof consists only of scenarios. This doctrine has be come an article of faith, like the equally unprovable one of Mutual Assured Destruction, which explains that the big nuclear weapon stockpiles essentially are harmless because they maintain a strategically stable military balance between the superpowers. These psychological speculations are defended with theological fervor and argued with Byzantine tortuousness. For example, the argument against a U.S. civil defense program is, first, that it will be ineffective; second, it will be destabilizing be cause people will think it is effective; and third, it thus will encourage our miliary to adventurism. On the other hand, the Soviet civil defense pro gram is not destabilizing. We are en titled to take such reasoning with a grain of salt. La Fontaine's fable, "The Animals 111 with the Plague," recounts how the transgression of a donkey who cropped a single mouthful of grass from a monastery field—and not the depredations of the carnivores who ate sheep, and occasionally the shepherd—was judged responsible for the wrath of the gods and the malady. The righteous indignation of states that already possess nuclear weapons at the Indian atomic explo sion has comic aspects which recall this fable. Unfortunately, there is a noncomic aspect: Preoccupation with the ten uous link between civilian reactors and the launching of missiles by the major nuclear weapons states is counterproductive, since it diverts attention from, and avoids tackling, the real problem. Similarly, harping on the evils of the nuclear power establishment will not improve reactor safety or eco nomics. But, as Sakharov has pointed out, it will undermine the political independence of the western democ racies. D Adsorption and Ion Exchange with Syn thetic Zeolites. ACS Symposium Series 135. William H. Flank, editor, χ + 293 pages. American Chemical Society, 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. 1980. $34.25.
Advances in Biochemical Engineering. Vol. 16. A. Fiechter, editor, viii + 148 pages. Springer-Verlag New York, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10010. 1980. $42.60. Aminocyclitol Antibiotics. ACS Symposium Series 125. Kenneth L. Rinehart Jr., Tetsuo Suami, editors, χ + 437 pages. American Chemical Society, 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.1980. $39.50. Analog and Digital Electronics for Scien tists. 2nd Ed. Basil H. Vassos, Galen W. Ewing. viii + 404 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1980. $22.50. The Asbestos Particle Atlas. Walter C. McCrone. 122 pages. Ann Arbor Science Pub lishers, P.O. Box 1425, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106. 1980. $85. Basic Chemistry—General, Organic, Bio logical. Denis M. Callewaert, Julien Genyea. xxii + 837 pages. Worth Publishers, 444 Park Ave. South, New York, N.Y. 10016. 1980. $19.95. Carbon and Graphite Fibers—Manufac ture and Applications. Marshall Sittig, editor. χ + 422 pages. Noyes Data Corp., Mill Rd. at Grand Ave., Park Ridge, N.J. 07656. 1980. $54. Casarett and Doull's Toxicology—The Basic Science of Poisons. 2nd Ed. John Doull, Curtis D. Klaassen, Mary 0 . Amdur, editors, xv + 778 pages. Macmillan Publishing Co., 866 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022. 1980, $29.95. Cell Surface Glycolipids. ACS Symposium Series 128. Charles C. Sweeley, editor, vii + 504 pages. American Chemical Society, 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. 1980. $44.50. Chemicals By Enzymatic and Microbial Processes. J. I. Duffy, editor, xii + 386 pages. Noyes Data Corp., Mill Rd. at Grand Ave., Park Ridge, N.J. 07656.1980. $48.
Ann Arbor Science Publishers, P.O. Box 1425, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106.1980. $29.50. Factor Analysis in Chemistry. Edmund R. Malinowski, Darryl G. Howery. ix + 251 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016.1980. $26.25. Fate and Weathering of Petroleum Spills in the Marine Environment. Randolph E. Jordan, James R. Payne, χ + 174 pages. Ann Arbor Science Publishers, P.O. Box 1425, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106.1980. $20. Fieser and Fieser's Reagents for Organic Synthesis. Vol. 8. Mary Fieser. 602 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016.1980. $36. Flavins and Flavoproteins. Kunio Yagi, Toshio Yamano, editors, xvi + 740 pages. University Park Press, 233 East Redwood St., Baltimore, Md. 21202.1980. $79.50. Fluidization. John R. Grace, John M. Matsen, editors, xviii + 605 pages. Plenum Press, 227 West 17th St., New York, N.Y. 10011. 1980. $69.50. General Chemistry: Principles and Struc ture. 2nd Ed. James E. Brady, Gerard E. Humiston. xvi + 779 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1980. $21.50. Growth and Properties of Metal Clusters. Jean Bourdon, editor, xviii + 549 pages. Else vier North-Holland Inc., 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017.1980. $97.50. Liquid Chromatography of Polymers and Related Materials II. Jack Cazes, Xavier Delamare, editors, viii + 262 pages. Marcel Dekker Inc., 270 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016.1980. $35. Microprocessors and Logic Design. Ronald L. Krutz. xvi + 467 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1980. $24.95.
Computational Methods in Chemistry. Joachim Bargon, editor, viii -I- 331 pages. Ple num Press, 227 West 17th St., New York, N.Y. 10011.1980. $37.50.
Mini- and Microcomputer Control in In dustrial Processes. M. Robert Skrokov, edi tor, xi + 291 pages. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 450 West 33rd St., New York, N.Y. 10001. 1980. $27.50.
Crystalline Electric Field and Structural Effects in f-Electron Systems. Jack E. Crow, Robert P. Guertin, Ted W. Mihalisin, editors, xii + 638 pages. Plenum Press, 227 West 17th St., New York, N.Y. 10011.1980. $69.50.
Natural Sulfur Compounds. Doriano Cavallini, Gerald E. Gaull, Vincenzo Zappia, ed itors, xv + 552 pages. Plenum Press, 227 West 17th St., New York, N.Y. 10011. 1980. $49.50.
Design & Management for Resource Re covery. Vol. 1, Energy from Waste. T. C. Frankiewicz, P. Aarene Vesilind, editors, xiv + 209 pages. Ann Arbor Science Publishers, P.O. Box 1425, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106. 1980. $29.95.
Nucleotide Analogs: Synthesis and Bio logical Function. Karl Heinz Scheit. xi + 288 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016.1980. $29.50.
Electrotechnology. Vol. 3, Stationary LeadAcid Batteries. Edward J. Friedman et al. xvi + 99 pages. Ann Arbor Science Publishers, P.O. Box 1425, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106. 1980. $29.95. Electrotechnology. Vol. 4, Heat P u m p Technology. Norman W. Lord, Robert P. Ouellette, Paul N. Cheremisinoff. xvii + 172 pages. Ann Arbor Science Publishers, P.O. Box 1425, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106. 1979. $29.95. Environment and Health. Norman M. Trieff, editor, χ + 652 pages. Ann Arbor Science Publishers, P.O. Box 1425, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106.1980. $39.95. Ethylene: Basic Chemicals Feedstock Ma terial. Oscar G. Farah et al. xiii + 103 pages.
Operation & Maintenance for Air Partic ulate Control Equipment. Richard A. Young, Frank L. Cross Jr., editors, ix -I-166 pages. Ann Arbor Science Publishers, P.O. Box 1425, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106.1980. $37.50. Ozone and Chlorine Dioxide Technology for Disinfection of Drinking Water. J. Katz, editor, xii + 659 pages. Noyes Data Corp., Mill Rd. at Grand Ave., Park Ridge, N.J. 07656. 1980. $36. Phonon Scattering in Condensed Matter. Humphrey J. Maris, editor, xix + 481 pages. Plenum Press, 227 West 17th St., New York, N.Y. 10011. 1980. $52.50. Phosphorus Management: Strategies for Lakes. Raymond C. Loehr, Colleen S. Martin, Walter Rast, editors, vi + 490 pages. Ann Arbor Science Publishers, P.O. Box 1425, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106.1980. $39.95. Oct. 13, 1980 C&EN
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Awards C. S. Hudson and Eli Lilly awardees
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George A. Jeffrey, chairman of the de partment of crystallography at the Uni versity of Pittsburgh, has received the 1980 C. S. Hudson Award from the ACS Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry. The $1000 award, sponsored by Kelco Corp. of San Diego, was presented to Jeffrey at the recent chemical congress in Las Vegas. In receiving the award, Jeffrey was cited for his pioneering contributions to carbohydrate structural chemistry using x-ray and neutron diffraction techniques. Jeffrey, who early recognized the rela tionships between crystallography and
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Jeffrey
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chemistry, is the author of more than 200 scientific papers, the majority of which deal with crystallography of carbohy drates. Jeffrey was born in Cardiff and edu cated in Brimingham, England. He ob tained a B.S. and Ph.D., and later a D.Sc, from the University of Birmingham. He joined the University of Pittsburgh in 1953. There, as professor of chemistry and physics, he taught quantum mechanics in chemistry and Xrray crystallography in physics. In 1956 he was instrumental in helping to persuade the University of Pittsburgh to acquire a digital computer. With the latest in x-ray diffraction counter equipment Jeffrey started his research on the electronic structure of some simple inorganic structures, such as beryllium oxide and alluminum nitride and the carbonitrides. Later, his interest turned to hydrates, especially the clathrate hydrates. With automated instru mentation coming in 1966, he applied his interest to carbohydrates—an area of structural chemistry in which he has be come increasingly involved.
