anup of nuclear accidents, since nuclear technology was developed under duress at a time of political upheaval. Even after the war according to Mark Hertsgaard in Earth Odyssey, (Broadway Books, NY 1999) "production took precedence over safety" when in Hanford, Washington radioactive gases were released into the atmosphere and wastes were intentionally dumped into the Columbia River. There was the chance, after World War II, to put nuclear technology under international control, but the lure of possessing a nuclear monopoly to project American power around the world was too attractive to resist. Fast forwarding through history, one is struck by the number of times the world has flirted with small to large scale disasters both because of inadequate planning and controls and because nuclear technology is available for purchase by nearly any nation with the funds to do so. The Cuban Missile Crisis, decades of the Cold War, Chernobyl and the most recent tensions between nuclear weapons-possessing nations like India and Pakistan are only a few examples that should have given the United States cause to wonder if we wouldn't have been better off burying or even having never created the technology.
             While we can denounce nuclear energy for its dangerous nature, it does provide electricity for billions of people around the globe where power from hydroelectric, wind or fossil fuels are not cost effective or just not available. This cheap power was a very important reason that the technology continued to be refined after World War II because "commercial interests looked forward to exploiting atomic energy to produce electricity they promised would be 'too cheap to meter'" (Hertsgaard, 141). Reasonable rates and dependable electricity was highly advantageous in the early days of nuclear power plants. Growing urban areas needed increased power output to supply the commercial and residential expansion...