Nuclear Power Issues and Choices; Report of the Nuclear Energy Policy Study Group

Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1977. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. Good. xvii, [3], 418, [8] pages. Footnotes. Tables. Figures. Appendix. Glossary. Abbreviations and Acronyms. List of Study Group Members. Cover has some wear and soiling. Black marks on the three edges. This work was sponsored by the Ford Foundation. The project was administered by the MITRE Corporation. This work was reviewed in Foreign Affairs by Reviewed by Andrew J. Pierre. In part he assessed this work as an impressive book, a commendable example of clarity, depth and timeliness. He judged that this work appeared to have had considerable impact on the nuclear policy of the Carter Administration. The 21-member group of experts examined the whole range of issues surrounding nuclear energy. Its recommendations were: (1) the international and social risks associated with the reprocessing and recycle of plutonium far outweigh the economic benefits and there is no compelling reason for the U.S. to depend upon plutonium in this century; (2) the breeder reactor program should be deemphasized and the date for commercialization postponed beyond the year 2000; (3) nuclear waste management should be expanded and improved, using stable geological formations; (4) U.S. uranium enrichment capacity should be enlarged so as to assure other countries adequate nuclear fuel supplies, thereby reducing pressures to seek indigenous facilities that would provide a capability leading to weapons; and (5) the U.S. should, through its nuclear export policy, seek a consensus among supplier and consumer nations against the spread of national plutonium separation and uranium enrichment facilities. The reviewer considered this to be a landmark study. Among the Study Group Members were Spurgeon Keeney, Harold Brown, Albert Carnesale, Abram Chayes, Paul Doty, Richard Garwin, Joseph Nye, Wolfgang Panofsky, George Rathjens, and Thomas Schelling.