Publication Laka-library:
Deadly Radiation Hazards USA database
| Author | Visual Information Project |
| Date | December 1995 |
| Classification | 3.01.0.00/30 (UNITED STATES - GENERAL) |
| Remarks | with map |
| Front | 
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From the publication:
Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons: A Deadly Legacy
Nuclear weapons and nuclear power were born in the deep secrecy of the Manhattan
Project to develop the atomic bombs used to annihilate the Japanese cities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Hanford reactors that produced the plutonium for the
bomb used against Nagasaki were crude precursors of the modem power reactor.
The nuclear power program bad its inception with Admiral Hyman Rickover' s
nuclear submarine propulsion program, and President Eisenhower's 1953 "Atoms
for Peace" speech to the United Nations. Rickover himself oversaw construction of
the first commercial power reactor in Shippingport, Pennsylvania.
Although initially electric utilities were uninterested in pursuing nuclear power,
the government persuaded them to invest heavily, using an orchestrated campaign
of ''carrots" (limited liability laws, subsidized uranium enrichment, discounted early
reactors) and "sticks"{principally the threat to create a government owned and
operated nuclear monopoly). This high level political decision to force the
development of nuclear power was of particular benefit to the major nuclear weapons
producing corporations. Today, many of the largest nuclear power contractors, such
as General Electric, Westinghouse, Bechtel, and Babcock and Wilcox, are also among
the primary nuclear weapons manufacturers.
The nuclear power and nuclear weapons programs share many parallels. The front
and back end of the nuclear ''fuel cycle" are virtually identical, generating vast
quantities of deadly radioactive wastes in the form of mountains of radioactive
tailings, millions of gallons of highly radioactive sludge, tens of thousands of tons
of irradiated fuel rods and vast quantities of so called "low lever' radioactive waste.
Both operate in darkest secrecy often exempt from meaningful oversight, and free
from civil or criminal liability. Both operate on a "cost plus" basis where the more
a project goes over budget, the greater the corporate profits. Executives from the
nuclear industry hold positions of inordinate power within the federal government
and exercise extraordinary influence over Congress, thus ensuring that the generous
government largess for nuclear programs continues.
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