By Ian Hore-Lacy

Third Edition now Available! 

Includes a Foreword by Dr. Patrick Moore, a co-founder ofGreenpeace, which attests to today's worldwide re-evaluation ofnuclear power.

"[The author] guides the reader expertly through themany complexities of nuclear energy.  This is an invaluableresource for anyone wishing to distinguish fact from myth and togain understanding in this crucial field."
--Hans Blix, Chancellor, World Nuclear University, andDirector General-Emeritus, International Atomic Energy Agency

This third edition of the World Nuclear University Primer onNuclear Energy in the 21st Century is an authoritative resource foreducators, students, policy-makers and interested lay-people alike.With balanced and accessible text, it provides:

--An introduction to nuclear science for the non-specialist.
--A valuable account of many aspects of nuclear technology,including industry applications.
--Answers to public concerns about nuclear power including safety,proliferation, and waste.
--Up-to-date data and references.

Since the first edition of this book in 1978 - as NuclearElectricity - the intention has been to get behind thecontroversies and selective arguments, and present facts aboutenergy demand and how it is met, in part, by nuclear power. Everyform of energy production and conversion has an effect on theenvironment and carries risks. Nuclear energy has its challengesbut these are frequently misunderstood and often misrepresented.Nuclear energy remains a safe, reliable, clean, and generallyeconomic source of electricity with minimal impact on theenvironment. But many people do not see it that way.

The introduction to the first edition of this book in the 1970sexpressed the opinion that if more effort were put into improvingthe safety and effectiveness of commercial nuclear power, andcorrespondingly less into ideological battles with those who wishedit had never been invented, then the world would be much betteroff. With Chernobyl nearly a quarter of a century behind us and thegreat improvements to safety in those plants which most needed it,plus the welcome recycling of military uranium into makingelectricity, it seems that we are now closer to that state ofaffairs.

As John Ritch, President of the World Nuclear University,pointed out in opening the sixth annual WNU Summer Institute:"Between now and 2050, as world population swells from 6.8 billiontoward 9 billion, humankind will consume more energy than thecombined total used in all previous history. Under present patternsof energy use, the consequences will prove calamitous. Theresulting pollution will damage or ruin the health of tens andlikely hundreds of millions of citizens, mainly in the developingworld. Far worse, the intensifying concentration of greenhousegases will take us past a point of no return as we hurtle towardclimate catastrophe. Today the world economy is producinggreenhouse emissions at the rate of 30 billion tonnes per year -nearly 1,000 tonnes per second." This book provides some detail ofan alternative.

The World Nuclear University is a global partnership ofindustry, inter-governmental, and academic institutions committedto enhancing education in nuclear science and technology. WNUpartners include the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), theWorld Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), the Nuclear EnergyAgency (NEA) of the OECD, and the World Nuclear Association(WNA).

Softcover