Showing papers by "Victor F. Weisskopf published in 1975"

Report to the American Physical Society by the study group on light-water reactor safety

Abstract: The issue of light-water reactor (LWR) safety has been the subject of a part-time, year-long study sponsored by the American Physical Society. The goal of the study was the assessment of some of the technical aspects of the safety of large light-water nuclear power reactors typical of present commercial practice in the Unted States. The report examines issues related to safe operation of LWRs; the research and development program responsible for establishing and enhancing safety; and the consequences of accidents for public health and welfare. The report in no way deals with the need for nuclear power or its benefits, and should not be considered as a net assessment of the risks versus the benefits of nuclear reactors. Since the risks of ecological impacts of other energy technologies are not addressed, no recommendations are made concerning the specific reactor program which should be followed in the immediate future. Among the areas covered in the report are primary pressure-vessel integrity; quality assurance; accident initiation from operator error, transients, and sabotage; the adequacy of present emergency core-cooling system designs; the calculation of long-term consequences to health of one particular low-probability accidental release of radioactivity; and the experimental and calculational (computer-code-development) aspects of the present reactor safety research program. A number of recommendations are contained with the report, mainly addressed to ways in which the safety of the present LWRs can be improved or better understood.

The Frontiers and Limits of Science

Abstract: Since the beginning of culture, man has been curious about the world in which he lives; he has continually sought explanations for his own existence and for the existence of the world?how it was created, how it developed and brought forth life and humankind, and how one day it will end. Early ideas on the subject were developed in mythological, religious, or philosophical frameworks. All these ideas have a common characteristic: they are directed to the totality of the phenomena; they want to account for everything that is. They intend to present the absolute truth by at tempting to give immediate answers to the fundamental questions of existence: "Why is the world the way we find it? What is life? What is the beginning and the end of the universe?" Several hundred years ago, human curiosity took a different turn: instead of reaching for the whole truth, people began to examine de finable and clearly separable phenomena. They asked not "What is matter?" and "What is life?" but "What are the properties of mat ter?" and "How does blood flow in the blood vessels?"; not "How was the world created?" but "How do the planets move in the sky?" In other words, general questions were shunned in favor of limited ones for which it seemed easier to get direct and unambiguous answers.