The Politics Of Nuclear Power

Will decision science pass tbis test? The answer depends on whether analysts can quickly and successfully translate their theories into practical approaches and whether these approaches promote the solution of the complex, highly uncertain, and politically sensitive problems that are of greatest concern to government decision makers. Now, government policy makers are putting decision science to the test.A major difficulty for the analysts who are being called upon by government to apply decision-aiding approaches is that decision science has not yet evolved a universally accepted methodology for analyzing social decisions involving risk.

. In addition to analyzing past histories, most contributions focus also on challenges, pitfalls and dilemmas that the region's policy makers and environmentalists must face during the period of transition and into the future. Environment and Democratic Transition: Policy and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe provides an overview of the mechanism of policy making, the role of the scientific community, the environmental movements, and the public in risk controversies in Central and Eastern Europe from the 1970s until 1991.

This book shows how such comparisons are shaped at present in various hazard domains, such as: flood protection location and physical planning of industry transportation of chemicals, and prevention of aircraft accidents. Quantified Societal Risk and Policy Making should be of interest to all those professionally concerned with defining the optimal separation between hazardous activities and equally desirable developments nearby.

The book provides a comprehensive, accessible and concise guide to risk assessment, management and governance.

Wicked Problems – Social Messes.

The review is extensive in that it covers over fifty years of research, theoretical develop­ ment, and practice. It can be difficult to identify the full range of both benefits and costs. Thus considerable uncertainty is built into most benefit estimates, even when they are based on the best available data. This Executive Order requires Federal agencies to perform benefits assessments of pro­ posed major regulations and prohibits them from taking regulatory action unless potential benefits exceed potential costs to society.

This book addresses this issue by exploring how particular technological risks come to be selected for societal attention and action. Risks believed by some individuals and groups to be tolerable or accept­ able - such as the risks of nuclear power or industrial pollutants - are intolerable and unacceptable to others.

These five plants had a combined 800 megawatts (800 MW), or less than one generating capacity ofless than percent of the total American electricity generating capacity in 1962. That year J. It was suggested that, after fIfteen to twenty-five years of development, mature nuclear technology could provide virtually inexhaustible, cheap energy given the abundance of nuclear fuel.

The challenge for decision makers is that consensus on these matters is often lacking. Risks believed by some individuals and groups to be tolerable or accept­ able - such as the risks of nuclear power or industrial pollutants - are intolerable and unacceptable to others.

That year J. The first power plant protoype reactor began operation in Shippingport, Pennsylvania in 1957. 1950s and early 1960s a small number of prototype nuclear In the reactors came on line in the United States. These five plants had a combined 800 megawatts (800 MW), or less than one generating capacity ofless than percent of the total American electricity generating capacity in 1962.