Used Book - SHOULD WE BE AFRAID OF NUCLEAR POWER, CLAUDE ALLEGRE, DOMINIQUE DE MONTVALON

With the Fukushima plant accident, we very quickly went from compassion to anguish. The event will leave its mark. World opinion, and therefore French opinion, will mainly remember the impossibility of predicting everything and, above all, the futility of the dogma of infallibility of engineers and all those who control them. So, is the fear of nuclear power no longer a myth? The small, closed world of civil nuclear power is afflicted with two evils: technical arrogance and a poor concern for transparency towards public opinion. The seismic catastrophe striking Japan today, somewhat indecently, gives new arguments to those who, in France or elsewhere, want to abandon nuclear power. Claude Allègre answers all our questions. He explains what atomic energy is and describes how a power plant works. He talks about new photovoltaic, wind, and geothermal energies, all of which are interesting but will never cover more than 10% of our needs. He informs us about the extraction of sandstone and oil shale, which are fuels of the future. Common sense would then guide the conduct to be adopted: prospecting to know the reserves, developing technologies allowing environmentally friendly exploitation. But "Mr. and Mrs. Everyman" distrust "nucleocrats" and, rightly so, ask many questions.

9782259215190