Energy and Now, the Political Fallout

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Advanced reactors under development in the U.S., Europe and Japan may prove more promising. Known as "inherent safety" devices, all are designed to eliminate vulnerable cooling systems and human errors and shut down immediately in case of malfunction. One such machine is being developed at the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago. Any sudden rise in temperature will halt the experimental reactor within minutes. The system performed flawlessly in its initial test last April. A similar Swedish unit called PIUS (Process Inherent Ultimate Safety) floods with water in the event of a mishap; the boron-treated liquid instantly stops the reactor. West Germany is experimenting with small modular units that can be cooled more quickly and efficiently than the present generation of nuclear behemoths.

However safe they may prove to be, such designs will probably not be ready for wide-scale use before the turn of the century. Meanwhile, politicians, no less than engineers, will have to confront people's nuclear fears. Having argued for so long that nightmares like Chernobyl could virtually never happen, experts must now live with all the fallout from that historic accident.