Nuclear Energy

Nuclear power as an alternative energy source to fossil fuels has certain advantages—for example, it doesn't produce greenhouse gases or smog emissions. But nuclear power produces significant risks, as exemplified by the disaster at Fukushima and earlier accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. RAND has evaluated the operations of nuclear power plants in Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the United States to explore the benefits of nuclear energy in relation to the threats posed by nuclear power plants.

Report
International institutions for nuclear energy: issues of assessment and design
If one objective of anti-proliferation policies is to assure that fuel cycle pathways to nuclear explosives are more costly than indigenous pathways, then it would be appropriate: (1) to retrofit existing institutions and revise international rules-...
Jan 1, 1978
Report
Rules-of-trade for international nuclear commerce
The rules-of-trade are those treaties, laws, agreements, and regulations pertaining to international transfers of nuclear material, equipment, technology, or personnel. They are needed to assure that international commerce in nuclear energy will not...
Jan 1, 1978
Report
International Cooperation in Nuclear Fuel Services: European and American Approaches
Discusses Western European international cooperation in production of nuclear fuel services, particularly multinational uranium enrichment, spent fuel reprocessing, plutonium production for and by breeder reactors, and waste disposal.
Jan 1, 1978
Report
Regulation of Nuclear Power: The Case of the Light Water Reactor
Chronicles the regulatory history of the commercial power reactor from 1954 through 1974.
Jan 1, 1977
Report
Electric Utility Decisionmaking and the Nuclear Option.
Electric Utility Decisionmaking and the Nuclear Option.
Jan 1, 1977
Report
Nuclear Reactors for Generating Electricity: U.S. Development from 1946 to 1963
Between 1946 and 1963, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) managed nuclear reactor research and development and, beginning in 1955, conducted the Power Reactor Demonstration Program.
Jan 1, 1977
Report
Legislative imperatives for California: new criteria for nuclear fuel cycle licensing in the light of U.S. antiproliferaton polices : testimony before the California Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, June 14, 1977
Comments on the possibility of decoupling decisions on the licensing of nuclear power plants from decisions on nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities. The author suggests that amended legislation should make it feasible to license new nuclear power pla...
Jan 1, 1977
Report
Nuclear responsibility and nuclear trade: international rules and institutions to manage nuclear fuel cycles
Diffusion of nuclear weapons and nuclear wastes as byproducts of nuclear-electric power impose intergenerational costs. However, constraints and improvements may also have intergenerational impacts, through depletion of nonrenewable fossil fuel and u...
Jan 1, 1977
Report
Lessons from Early Experience in Reactor Development.
Outlines U.S. nuclear reactor development and demonstration experience, between 1946 and 1963. The pressurized water reactor was selected in 1953 because it promised short-term reliable nuclear power rather than long-run cheap power. It was assumed...
Jan 1, 1976
Report
A Cross-National Comparison of Nuclear Reactor Development Strategies.
Reviews the development of nuclear power reactors in the United States, Great Britain, France, West Germany, Canada, and the Soviet Union. The paper discusses the acceptance or rejection of respective national reactor types and what factors influence...
Jan 1, 1976
Journal Article
PGMs: Changing Weapon Priorities, New Risks, New Opportunities
Discusses questions raised by the new wide availability of precision guided munitions (PGMs).
Jan 1, 1976
Report
A Reliability Review of the Reactor Safety Study.
On August 20, 1974, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) made public 14 volumes of the [Reactor Safety Study: An Assessment] [of Accident Risks in U.S. Commercial] [Nuclear Power Plants]. The AEC took two years, and a reported $3 million dollars, to ...
Jan 1, 1975
Report
Electricity Generating Cost Model for Comparison of California Power Plant Siting Alternatives
A model that describes the cost implications of siting electric generating plants at a representative range of possible sites in or near California, and develops cost estimating methods that can be used to investigate alternative possibilities.
Jan 1, 1973
Report
Exploration of the Performance of Multiphase Nuclear-Fuel Cavity Reactors for Power Generation
Explores the feasibility of nuclear-fuel cavity reactors for the generation of electric power.
Jan 1, 1972
Report
Multiphase Nuclear Fuel Cavity Reactors for Power Generation
The characteristics and problems of cavity reactors with the fuel in the solid, solid/liquid, solid/liquid/gas, liquid, and liquid/gas states are explored analytically in an effort to uncover interesting operational regimes.
Jan 1, 1971
Report
Civilian Nuclear Power and Foreign Policy
An analysis of the problems that have arisen in connection with civilian nuclear power, the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection.
Feb 1, 1968
Report
Perspective on Nuclear Energy
This perspective on the dangers of destruction promises no quick and final solution. It involves discriminating acts of choice in both the military and civilian fields of nuclear energy for the indefinite future. And it does not minimize the dangers.
Jan 10, 1968
Report
A Reexamination of the Nuclear Proliferation Problems Presented by World-Wide Requirements for Enriched Fuel; Relating the February 1965 Options to Today.
Current interest in acquiring facilities for the production of uranium-235 for nuclear power plants, in addition to the desire of U.S. industry to acquire private ownership and operation of government uranium enrichment facilities, makes it imperativ...
Jan 1, 1968
Report
New Method to Limit Abundance of Cosmic Ray Quarks
A contribution to the search for quarks, fundamental physical particles hypothesized by Murray Gell-Mann that carry an electric charge a third or two-thirds that of the proton and arrive on earth via cosmic rays.
Jan 1, 1968
Report
The Grand Canyon Controversy--1967 : Further Economic Comparisons of Nuclear Alternatives.
An updating of P-3302 and Congressional testimony by the authors against the Grand Canyon dam projects. Calculation methods have been changed to credit the proposed alternative nuclear power plants with the Federal Power Commission's regular energy ...
Jan 1, 1967

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Nuclear Energy

International institutions for nuclear energy: issues of assessment and design

Rules-of-trade for international nuclear commerce

International Cooperation in Nuclear Fuel Services: European and American Approaches

Regulation of Nuclear Power: The Case of the Light Water Reactor

Electric Utility Decisionmaking and the Nuclear Option.

Nuclear Reactors for Generating Electricity: U.S. Development from 1946 to 1963

Legislative imperatives for California: new criteria for nuclear fuel cycle licensing in the light of U.S. antiproliferaton polices : testimony before the California Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, June 14, 1977

Nuclear responsibility and nuclear trade: international rules and institutions to manage nuclear fuel cycles

Lessons from Early Experience in Reactor Development.

A Cross-National Comparison of Nuclear Reactor Development Strategies.

PGMs: Changing Weapon Priorities, New Risks, New Opportunities

A Reliability Review of the Reactor Safety Study.

Electricity Generating Cost Model for Comparison of California Power Plant Siting Alternatives

Exploration of the Performance of Multiphase Nuclear-Fuel Cavity Reactors for Power Generation

Multiphase Nuclear Fuel Cavity Reactors for Power Generation

Civilian Nuclear Power and Foreign Policy

Perspective on Nuclear Energy

A Reexamination of the Nuclear Proliferation Problems Presented by World-Wide Requirements for Enriched Fuel; Relating the February 1965 Options to Today.

New Method to Limit Abundance of Cosmic Ray Quarks

The Grand Canyon Controversy--1967 : Further Economic Comparisons of Nuclear Alternatives.

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