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"If we use its power well, it will bring a tremendous leap forward
in human civilization; if we use it badly, we will destroy the Earth."
-Nagasaki doctor Takashi Nagai in 1946 on splitting the atom.
The atomic age probably arrived 20 years early because of World War II.
"If there had been no war, we would have taken maybe two more decades
before the nuclear industry would have evolved," said Alan Waltar of
Richland, president of the American Nuclear Society.
And atomic power's resulting effect is greater than most people realize,
said the Westinghouse Hanford Co. nuclear engineer.
Fifty years after 1945, the legacy of the first nuclear bombs lingers in
everyday events - from exotic medical procedures to mundane fire smoke detectors;
from giant power generators to cleanup of the tiniest particles of atomic
leftovers in the air, water and soil.
Today the atom's powers are well known. But its future is unclear.
It can light or ignite the world - technology or terror.
Post-Cold War disarmament has diminished fission's role as a weapon. And
public resistance limits its potential as a power source.
Atomic power's critics say nuclear energy is unsafe, too costly, poses almost
unfathomable waste disposal problems and increases risk of nuclear war.
Accidents at nuclear power plants have reinforced those fears.
But atomic power's supporters say it provides clean power and vastly improved
medical technology. Hanford is being considered a prime site for production
of cancer-fighting isotopes.
Both arguments have merit. Nuclear power provides so much promise, so many
problems.
Today, the United States has 104 reactors providing 21 percent of its electricity.
These include the Washington Public Power Supply System's Reactor No. 2
at Hanford.
Worldwide, 44 nuclear power plants are under construction. But there hasn't
been an order for a new nuclear plant in the United States since 1979.
And Japan, target of the World War II bombs, has 50 nuclear reactors, which
provide 27 percent of its electricity. Nagasaki has no nuclear plants, though
Hiroshima does.
Today's atomic legacy includes:
-- Nuclear science contributed $330 billion to the U.S. economy in 1991
while providing 4 million jobs. That includes a nuclear energy industry
worth $73 billion, employing 400,000.
-- 35,000 people hospitalized each year in the United States benefit from
nuclear technology - from sterilization of medical products to diagnosis
and radiation therapy.
-- Nuclear applications in agriculture have reduced fertilizer and water
needs, improved crops and food safety.
-- The automobile industry uses nuclear technology to test steel quality.
-- The paper industry uses nuclear technology in the production of coated
stock.
-- The airline industry uses the technology to check for flaws in jet engines.
-- Construction crews use it to gauge the density of road surfaces and subsurfaces.
-- Oil, gas and mining companies use it to map contours of test wells and
mine bores.
-- Millions of homes are equipped with smoke alarms containing the tiniest
bit of radioactive americium.
What went wrong with atomic power in the United States?
Waltar believes Vietnam is one answer. That war brought out critics of nuclear
weapons, and their numbers grew. Also, the collapse of the Soviet system
in late 1991 and the subsequent end of the Cold War meant behemoth defense
production sites weren't needed.
And the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents had a decisive effect
on the public's support for nuclear-generated electricity, Waltar said.
For the industry to stand a chance of recovering, Waltar believes it must
make progress in three main areas: improving reactor efficiency through
better design, safely handling wastes and upgrading old reactors.