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Science 29 June 1984:
Vol. 224. no. 4656, pp. 1398 - 1402
DOI: 10.1126/science.224.4656.1398
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Articles

Inherently Safe Reactors and a Second Nuclear Era

Alvin M. Weinberg 1 and Irving Spiewak 2

1 Director of the Institute for Energy Analysis, Oak Ridge Associated Universities.
2 Mellon Fellow at the Institute for Energy Analysis.

The Swedish PIUS reactor and the German-American small modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor are inherently safe—that is, their safety relies not upon intervention of humans or of electromechanical devices but on immutable principles of physics and chemistry. A second nuclear era may require commercialization and deployment of such inherently safe reactors, even though existing light-water reactors appear to be as safe as other well-accepted sources of central electricity, particularly hydroelectric dams.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Radiation Accidents and Nuclear Energy: Medical Consequences and Therapy.
R. E. Champlin, W. E. Kastenberg, and R. P. Gale (1988)
Ann Intern Med 109, 730-744
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