But if enough thought and "dreaming up" is devoted to any system, one can always devise a chain of events that can defeat all safety systems and do harm to the workers or the public. This was a useful process in deciding on what safety systems to include. For the first time in history, environmental impacts were thoroughly investigated before an industry started.Īn important part of this effort was to try to "dream up" anything and everything that can possibly go wrong in a nuclear power plant, and investigate the consequences. One of the highest priority activities it assigned to them was investigation of the environmental impacts of nuclear power. In order to promote it, the AEC brought in commercial interests beginning in the mid 1950s, but it kept the national laboratories deeply involved. Use of nuclear energy to generate electricity was a very important part of this research and development program. A recent well-publicized element of that program is the multibillion dollar superconducting supercollider accelerator to be constructed in Texas to study the fundamental nature of matter, with no practical applications in sight. Government also recognized that this enterprise, in the long run, would serve the public interest, and continues to support it to this day. There was a general understanding among all concerned that the scientists had paid their dues they had given the government's military nuclear weapons, nuclear submarines, and a host of other goodies and that their new technology was to serve humanity under the guidance of this research enterprise. The goal of all was to provide humankind with the blessings of nuclear energy as expeditiously as possible. A spirit of close cooperation reigned throughout. The AEC was monitored by the Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, which included some of the most powerful senators and representatives. It's General Advisory Committee, made up of some of the nation's most distinguished scientists, exerted very strong influence. ![]() Prominent scientists served as commissioners, often as chairmen. The AEC was set up at the behest of scientists to remove nuclear energy development from military control. The government's side of this enterprise was run by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Their approach ran the gamut from the most basic research to the most practical applications. Their objectives went far beyond development of nuclear technology, and included seeking a thorough understanding of the environmental effects. They arranged for an unprecedented level of financial support for research in universities where most of the scientists were based. They set up national laboratories of unprecedented size in the New York (Brookhaven), Chicago (Argonne), and San Francisco (Berkeley, Livermore) areas and at the wartime development sites in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Los Alamos, New Mexico. Directly or indirectly, hundreds of scientists were involved in guiding our national nuclear energy program. But from the beginning of the project in the early 1940s, the scientists always felt strongly that this new technology, developed at government expense, would provide great benefits to mankind.ĭistinguished scientists like Henry Smythe and Glenn Seaborg held high positions of power all the way up until the early 1970s, and through them many of the greatest and most idealistic scientists, like Enrico Fermi, Eugene Wigner, and Hans Bethe, exerted great influence on the course of events. Their first objective was to save the world from the hideous Hitler, and after World War II it was to protect freedom and democracy through military strength. None of them thought about making money, and there was no mechanism for them to do so. Their motivation was entirely idealistic. ![]() They banded together to obtain government support the highly publicized letter from Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt in 1941 was a key element in that process. It was conceived and brought into being by the world's greatest scientists. With nuclear energy, everything was to be entirely different. Coal-burning technologies have been an excellent example of this development process. At that point an adversarial relationship may develop, with the government serving to protect the public at the expense of the industry. Only after the public revolts against the pollution inflicted upon it does the issue of the environment come into the picture. In the process, the environmental impacts of this new technology are the least of their concerns. If the technology is successful, the entrepreneurs prosper as a new industry develops and thrives. Technologies are normally developed by entrepreneurs whose primary goal is making money. Next=> THE FEARSOME REACTOR MELTDOWN ACCIDENT
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