Risk of producing energy — and conserving it

Abstract

If there is one question which concerns members of the general public most about generating nucioar power, it is the question of risk. Proliferation, resource availability and all the other matters which are treated in this and previous symposia, are of interest to the general public, but probably only in a limited way. As a result, I will discuss the important topic of risk to human health in this presentation. One of the key questions in discussing the risks associated with nuclear power or any other energy system is, compared to what? That is, it is not too useful to say that there are so many man-days lost or deaths per megawatt-year, because that number will not mean much to many people. We gather most of what we know about the world in comparing things or ideas. So it is with risk. The risks we calculate mean most when they are compared to other risks. This paper is divided into two parts. The first part is based on a study (1) done previously, comparing the risks of 11 different anergy systems, including light-water nuclear power. The information presented in Ret. 1 is brought up to date as necessary.