Pandora's Nuclear Box
| Author | Lawrence Scheinman |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207002500410 |
| Published date | 01 December 1970 |
| Date | 01 December 1970 |
| Subject Matter | Review Article |
Lawrence
Scheinman, University
of
Michigan
Pandora's
Nuclear
Box
The most
dramatic
aspect
of
the
nuclear
age
has
been
the
strategic
arms
race
that
it
has
inspired.
For
nearly
a
decade
following
Hiro-
shima,
questions
of
the
development
and
control
of
nuclear
arms
domi-
nated
discussion
and
debate in
the
high political
councils
of
the
world's
major
powers,
and
the
race
for
leadership
in
military
nuclear
capability
was
the
only
aspect
of
the
nuclear
phenomenon
that
captured
public
attention
and scholarly analysis.
While
the
nuclear
arms
debate
con-
tinues
unabated,
as
evidenced
by
the
recently
concluded
Non-Prolifera-
tion
Treaty
(Nur)
and
the
current
strategic arms
limitation
talks
(SALT)
between
Washington and
Moscow,
broader
nuclear
vistas
have
opened
up.
President
Eisenhower's
Atoms
for
Peace proposal
of
1953,
followed
by
the
1955
Geneva
Conference
on
the
Peaceful
Uses
of
Atomic
Energy,
and
the
creation
in
1957
of
the International
Atomic
Energy
Agency
(LAEA)
"to
accelerate
and
enlarge
the
contribution of atomic
energy
to
peace,
health
and
prosperity
throughout
the
world"
impressed
on
the
public
consciousness
an
awareness
that
the
atom
had
a
benign
and
constructive
dimension as well as
destructive
capabilities.
In
1970
this awareness
is
much more
manifest,
and a
significantly
larger
portion
of
time
and energy
devoted
to
nuclear
questions
is
being
invested
in
the
peaceful
nuclear
domain.
The
prevailing,
though
not
unchallenged
attitude
among
dlites
and
publics
in
advanced
and
de-
veloping
nations
is
one of
anticipation
of
the
potential
benefits
to
be
derived
from
the
harnessing
of
the
peaceful
atom.
But
this
quasi-
euphoric
view,
as
the
books
by
Novickl
and
by
Curtis and
Hogan
2
reveal,
is
built
on
a
combination
of
grossly inadequate
public
informa-
tion
and
knowledge
regarding
the
risks
inherent
in
the
industrialization
of
atomic
power,
and
high-level,
high-powered
salesmanship
by
spokes-
men
of government
and
private industry.
The
message
of
these
two
studies
on
the
peaceful
atom
is
that
apprehensiveness
rather
than
anticipation
would
be a
more
appropriate
mood;
that
nuclear
power development
is
being
exploited
at
a
pace
that
outdistances
our
command
of
the
technology;
and
that
the
long-
term
consequences
of
the
continued
commercialization
of
the
atom
at
the
present
rate
and
under existing
conditions
are
at
best
risky
and
at
worst potentially
disastrous.
The
development
of
the
power
reactor
programme
in
the
United
States
dates from
the
mid-1950s,
when
the
Atomic
Energy
Commission,
supported
by
industries
which
had
heavily
invested in
military nuclear
technology
and
by
proponents
of
the
private
ownership
of
utilities,
ended
the
government
monopoly
in
the
nuclear
Professor
of
Political
Science
University
of
Michigan,
Ann
Arbor.
1
Sheldon Novick,
The
Careless
Atom
(Boston:
Houghton
Mifflin
[Toronto:
Thomas
Nelson],
1969
x,
225pp.,
$7.95).
2
Richard Curtis
and
Elizabeth
Hogan,
Perils
of
the
Peaceful
Atom:
The
Myth
of
Safe
Nuclear
Power
Plants
(Toronto:
Doubleday,
1969,
xiv,
274pp.,
$7.25).
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