With the current discussions of a possible nuclear power plant coming to Utah: what are the benefits and risks? This is especially important regarding global climate change and energy policy. This book addresses several prevalent policies that have arisen since the birth of the nuclear industry and its various facets. Insurmountable Risks by Brice Smith starts out by discussing various types of nuclear power plants, and the advantages and disadvantages of each including costs and benefits. Evolvement of regulatory policies that govern the nuclear industry from the Atomic Energy Commission to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are discussed, including international policies from the United Nations Commission on Nuclear Proliferation.

Comparison is also made between nuclear and other forms of power generation with regard to economy, safety, sustainability, including consideration of whether nuclear power is really a "green" technology when all aspects of the energy generation are taken into consideration. There is also a discussion of how energy is treated as a commodity on the various national and international stock exchange markets. There is also an analysis done by various economists comparing the different ways of generating electrical power, with special attention to factoring in hidden costs, such as disposal of uranium mining mill tailings, use of large volumes of water, etc. to that of other energy industries hidden costs.

Discussion of radioactive waste management from the different forms of nuclear power generation is also presented, such as different reprocessing methods from various countries (and where this stands as of today), as well as the as yet unsolved disposal problems related to high level waste. Another consideration dealt with in this book is the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation by rogue nations, since the accumulation of weapons grade uranium and plutonium is easily accomplished once a country has the technology to produce reactor grade material.

The culture of safety is analyzed from miners of raw materials, to that of the refining, to that of processing in the nuclear power plant, to the waste material. This includes a discussion of depleted uranium (which is produced in large quantities in the refining of uranium ore), to mixing of radioactive isotopes, to long-term waste management, and to that of other energy technologies safety issues.

While this book is not a light read, there are over 1000 footnotes that are as interesting as the text itself. There are about 50 pages devoted just to references, and a list of acronyms is provided to help the reader navigate through the book. It is a very informative source on this crucial current issue. It may be hard to find, but a copy can be obtained from the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (www.ieer.org or www.rdrbooks.com ), and King's English Bookstore.

--Cindy and Art King