Waste Handling Practices Research Articles

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 979 Forevermore: Nuclear Waste inAmerica. By Donald L. Barlett andJames B. Steele. New York: W. W. Norton, 1985. Pp. 352; illustrations, tables, bibliography, index. $17.95 (cloth); $7.95 (paper). Forevermore is an expanded and updated version ofa series ofarticles on nuclear waste and its disposal in the United States that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer in November 1983. The book deals with the amounts of produced nuclear waste, past efforts to manage it, the politics of nuclear waste disposal, the state of current technology, and the outlook for the future. Donald Barlett and James Steele aim to inform the American public of the forty-year failure of the government, the scientific community, and industry to control radioactive wastes, in order to stimulate all Americans to “rethink this problem sure to haunt us for generations, indeed forevermore.” This purpose and the appliedjournalistic method constitute the book’s principal weaknesses. It offers a descriptive, retrospective, nonchronological history without analyzing the origins, developments, trends, and regularities in the constantly portrayed failures. The dynamics of this seemingly unavoidable and compelling his torical development are shaped by the actions and interactions of untrustworthy and unreliable scientists, with scientific knowledge characterized as dubious and uncertain; government officials and pol iticians who are ignorant opportunists concerned only with their ca reers and (re)election; and private companies interested only in making profits and reducing costs. The authors do not explain why these actors lie, cheat, and hide information, or why the technology to treat the waste apparently fails. And there is no information or explanation on the origins of societal and scientific controversies on nuclear waste, nuclear energy, the effects of atomic radiation, and radiation stan dards. Although the historical context of a certain stage in the de velopment of nuclear technology is occasionally mentioned, it is not related to the particular historical, cultural, and institutional contexts in which it originated. Nuclear waste failures are blamed on the dishonest and imprudent attitudes ofthe federal government and the scientific community from 1945 on and the priority given to special interests over national in terests. Because the government and scientists will not admit that mistakes were made, federal regulations will not be reconsidered. On the basis of these views, the authors assess a gloomy future. Forevermore raises more questions than it answers, but the questions are so fundamental and stimulating that the book should appeal to historians of technology interested in nuclear power. Despite its short comings, it provides much valuable information on waste statistics, waste record keeping, waste-handling practices, uncertainty about the amount, locations, and solutions for waste, and the relation of civilian and military waste. Although it should be read skeptically and sup 980 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE plemented with other works, Forevermore’sjournalistic fact-finding ap proach adds refreshing and lively aspects to the often tedious scientific publications on this subject. Adri A. Albert de la Bruheze Dr. de la Bruheze works at the University of Twente and is engaged in a historical and sociological study of changes in problem definitions of nuclear waste in the United States and the Netherlands. Scientific Controversies: Case Studies in the Resolution and Closure of Dis putes in Science and Technology. Edited by H. Tristram Englehardt, Jr., and Arthur L. Caplan. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Pp. x + 639; notes, indexes. $59.50 (cloth); $19.95 (paper). This volume consists of twenty-nine papers by thirty-one authors on the important and timely subject of scientific controversies and their resolution or closure. The notion of scientific controversy is broadly construed to include controversies not only within science but also in medicine, and controversies concerning the applications of science and the uses of technology. Furthermore, only controversies having, in the editors’ words, “a heavy political and ethical overlay” are considered. The book is the product of a three-year series of meetings, the Closure Project, held at the Hastings Center and supported financially by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The authors had opportunities to hear and discuss one another’s papers and, appar ently, to follow the development of the papers through to publication. After the editors’ introduction, the book is...

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