Books in Brief: Atomic Energy: A New Start

Atomic Energy: A New Start, by David Lilienthal (Harper and Row, 124 pp., $8.95). In 1946 David Lilienthal became the first chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, with responsibility (among other things) for the peaceful development of the atom. Lilienthal argues that the type of reactor eventually chosen by the AEC for development and production suffers from a “complexity which is characteristic of an immature, first-stage technology. . . . There are just too many junctures at which something can go wrong.” Nuclear plants “should be designed to be operated by human beings.” Lilienthal is no Luddite; he believes in the potential of nuclear power, and damns the press coverage of Three Mile Island as sensationalistic and ignorant. He is not sure, however, what to replace present reactors with. He suggests that safety standards be tightened up, while a New Atom Corporation, accountable to the President, develops new ideas for reactor design. Lilienthal makes the intelligent case for a holding operation, without ever directly facing the question: If TMI was not the disaster it was cracked up to be, why bother?

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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Atomic Energy: A New Start, by David Lilienthal (Harper and Row, 124 pp., $8.95). In 1946 David Lilienthal became the first chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, with responsibility (among other things) for the peaceful development of the atom. Lilienthal argues that the type of reactor eventually chosen by the AEC for development and production suffers from a “complexity which is characteristic of an immature, first-stage technology. . . . There are just too many junctures at which something can go wrong.” Nuclear plants “should be designed to be operated by human beings.” Lilienthal is no Luddite; he believes in the potential of nuclear power, and damns the press coverage of Three Mile Island as sensationalistic and ignorant. He is not sure, however, what to replace present reactors with. He suggests that safety standards be tightened up, while a New Atom Corporation, accountable to the President, develops new ideas for reactor design. Lilienthal makes the intelligent case for a holding operation, without ever directly facing the question: If TMI was not the disaster it was cracked up to be, why bother?