Abstract
In any assessment of the desirability of sources of electrical power it is important to be aware of a central concept in risk analysis: risk versus benefit. Everything we do involves some risk. Driving to the grocery store is a risky activity. You cannot even avoid risk by staying in your house: even if you remain in bed and are waited on, your muscles will atrophy, and you will become ill simply as a result of inaction. Furthermore, you will still be subject to the dangers of fire, tornado, and so on. It would appear that the only perfectly safe thing to do is die!
The public must recognize that a risk free society is not only impossible, but intolerably expensive... There are numerous deaths from falls down stairs in the home every year, but we do not advocate that all staircases be replaced by elevators.
Daniel E. Koshland, Jr. Editor, Science magazine Science 244, 7 April 1989
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U-238 fissions well with high-energy fast neutrons. However, the efficiency of the reaction is low compared to that achieved by U-235 with thermal (slow) neutrons, and it will not support a chain reaction; this is why U-235 is used in reactors and in fission bombs. U-238 can be used in the H-bomb blanket because a very high density of fast neutrons is available.
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© 1991 John Jagger
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Jagger, J. (1991). The Power Problem. In: The Nuclear Lion. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2784-2_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2784-2_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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