RJA #11: Annotated Bibliography, Part 2: "Is Nuclear Power Safe?": ENG 1020

Caldicott, Helen. Nuclear Power is not the Answer. New York City, New York: The New Press, 2007. 19-87. Print.

Helen Caldicott wrote this book to express her opposing views on nuclear power. She argues that nuclear power costs up to 3 times more then other forms of energy is you include the mining and security costs. She also states that radiation is dangerous no matter if it comes from getting a CAT scan to the radiation from a reactor. Finally she alleges that nuclear power is not emissions free since it takes vehicles that emit greenhouse gases to move the minerals and mine them. Her book is a great source since it takes into account variables that are often over looked on the topic and for the fact she includes several sources on the topic.

Daley, Michael. Nuclear power. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Lerner Publications, 1997. 45-85. Print.

In Michael Daley’s book on nuclear power, he focuses on both sides of the issue on using nuclear power. In the first part of the book, he tells about how nuclear power can be dangerous to people because of the toxic radiation. As the book goes on he states that nuclear power plants expose people to less radiation then an X-ray would during a doctor’s visit. He also goes into how nuclear power is regulated to make sure that nuclear power plants remain safe and that if they fall below acceptable levels they are to be decommissioned to prevent accidents from ever occurring. This is a great book since it gives you both sides of the argument and the author does his best to stay neutral on the topic.

Bodansky, David. Nuclear energy. Woodbury, New York: AIP Press, 1996. 185-211. Print.

In this book, David Bodansky covers how nuclear power plants are kept safe. He begin by covering how regulation are put in place to make sure nuclear reactors are operated in limits that are set by the nuclear regulatory commission. Then he goes into all the passive and active safety systems that are put into place to make sure that if an accident does begin to occur, that the reactors are shut down to prevent the accident from occurring any further. Finally he covers how accidents have decreased over the years do to the new safety regulations and judgments that have been implemented over the past few decades. This is a great book since it covers the safety measures that are in place to protect the plants from major accidents.

Pligt, Joop. Nuclear energy and the public. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Pub, 1992. 112-150. Print.

This book goes deep into the accidents that occurred at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. The book starts out by explaining how the nuclear accidents occurred at both plants and why they weren’t prevented. It then goes into how nuclear accidents are communicated to the public so that they public can react in a way that helps keep them safe and allow crews to focus on containing the accident before it becomes critical. This book is a great source since it covers the major accidents, and then goes into what we do in the modern era to make sure that if one does occur again, that they people know how to react so that they remain safe.

Rossenfeld, Carrie. "Atomic Archive." Major Nuclear Power Plant Accidents. N.p., 30 09 1999. Web. 11 Apr 2010. .

Carrie Rossenfeld developed this webpage to give her readers incite into nuclear accidents that have occurred and how bad they were when they occurred. Carrie covers the two major accidents, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, as well as many of the unknown ones that have occurred on land and sea. She goes into casualty reports on each accident, if there were casualties, and then covers what kind of fallout has occurred at the sites. She also covers what happened before the accident that ended up leading to the actual accident in the end. This is a great site because the only two accidents that people truly know about are Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.