Risks from nuclear power and weapons are on the rise

Like the boiling water reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant uses Mark I containment.

The risks posed by both nuclear weapons and nuclear energy are increasing. Nowhere is immune from these risks, and the methods used to assess them are imperfect. This is the message from theoretical physicist and arms control specialist Sidney Drell in an article published in Science today. In the article, "A Safer Nuclear Enterprise," Drell and his co-authors (including former Secretary of State George P. Shultz) address these issues through a series of recommendations to improve nuclear safety, with the "clear goal" of global disarmament of nuclear weapons among them. Contextualized both by Fukushima, which the article claims "demonstrates the fragility of the civil nuclear enterprise," and by growing apprehension surrounding nuclear terrorism, the authors set out three "guiding principles" for leaders in nuclear enterprises, though these might more accurately be described as warnings against complacency.

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