NUCLEAR POWER REACTORS AND THE EVALUATION OF POPULATION HAZARDS

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the possibility of radiological hazards from an escape of fission products. A framework of scientific knowledge and methodology exists by which one may evaluate possible hazards to the population living in the general neighborhood of nuclear power reactors. This methodology has been developed and added to during the growth of the nuclear power industry from its infancy in the 1950s, and variations and improvements in this methodology will continue to be made. Any such improvements will have to come mainly from small-scale experiments in the laboratory—for example, accretions to the information on fission product release and its control or suppression—and from theoretical studies supported by somewhat larger scale tests. Experimental and theoretical studies of this kind, including examination of the reliability of components and systems, are in progress in several countries, including the United Kingdom where the Safety and Reliability Directorate of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority has played a leading role.