Atomic energy and the environment

Conclusions

In periods of scientific and technological revolution, the protection of the environment from pollution ranks as one of the most important problems. The power industry is a major source of environmental pollution and the problem of protecting the environment from its wastes is particularly urgent because of the rapid rise in energy demand.

From the point of view of environmental conservation and human health, nuclear power has an important advantage over traditional power sources using solid and liquid organic fuels. The extensive development of nuclear power in the future will require timely scientific solutions to a number of problems. The largest of these is the problem of solid and liquid wastes, solution of which will ensure reliable protection of the environment. Although air-borne APS emissions do not constitute a danger to the environment, the endeavor to reduce them further retains its urgency. This is because in the long term it is necessary not only to ensure negligible radiation of the population living close to the APS but also to prevent a significant rise in the overall dose to the population. A particularly important problem is to find foolproof means of preventing accidental contamination of the environment, which would be a significant step toward siting APS and atomic and thermal power centers close to large cities.

The possibility of a rise in the collective-dose level in the early stages of nuclear-power development must be met in a number of ways: by reducing the existing radiation load due to irrational activity (above all, x-ray diagnostics), by investigating the biological effects of small and extremely small doses (including the combined effect of radiation and chemical factors), and by developing work on the theoretical basis for the normalization of radiation effects.