I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand all of the issues related with nuclear power. I gave it 5 stars as it is by an expert and has all of the information to address everyones possible concerns about nuclear energy.

An excellent book with all of the available information on nuclear energy from 1983. It is thirty years old but is still relevant. It was written after the Three Mile Island melt down, and before Chernobyl or Fukishima melt downs.

He worked very hard at publicizing all of the positive things about nuclear energy so that the public could be aware of its advantages. Unfortunately, it was difficult to get a good deal of coverage in the media. Dr. Cohen was saying positive, but boring things, about nuclear energy, and the media and the public were much more interested in the sensational things being said by the anti nuclear crowd., that may or may not have been true. The media was looking for sensationalism and headlines and preferable ones that would scared the public so that they could get more readers and attention.

Chapter 1 he addresses the problems in public understanding that he encountered. When he was providing was factual information about nuclear power, and the media wanted readership, and really cared less about the facts or educating people. Unfortunate approach be the media.
Chapter 2 was all about how dangerous is radiation? He provides all of the information on the hazards or radiation and how nuclear power plants by their design and operation address all of the radiation safety issues.
Chapter 3 dealt with the meltdown of a reactor core as happened at three mile island. He explains all of the issues and events, and why there was not a threat to the people working at TMI, or in the surrounding community.
Chapter 4 Understanding Risk, is where he works to get people to understand risk in their everyday lives. We all all much more likely to die in a traffic accident than a failure of a nuclear power plant.
Chapter 5 address high level radioactive waste and the great myths about it. The rest of the world reprocesses the waste for the fuel, which really reduces the volume of waste. President Carter in the late 1970s made a decision not to reprocess as he considered that the plutonium separated from the spent fuel might be stolen by some rogue nation or whatever, and used in a nuclear bomb. This has not been a problem for France and other reprocessing countries. Chapter 6 is more on waste, where he speaks to the low level waste and issues like Radon.
Chapter 7 is where he speaks to Plutonium and bombs. The short takeaway is that power reactors are not a practical source for Uranium 235 or Plutonium 239 which are required at a high purity or concentration level for use in a nuclear bomb. There are other much more practical ways to get the bomb making material, for plutonium 239, a specially designed reactor to make bomb grade plutonium 239 is the best way.
Chapter 8 addresses cost. One of the key issues is the ratcheting of the requirements by the regulators when prodded by the anti nuclear crowd. The other factor has been the law-fare, or incessant legal challenges mounted by the environmental community. He considers that these caused very large increases in the cost to build, and time to build a nuclear reactor. He makes a convincing case that this has been a real factor on why we do not have more nuclear power plants, but instead got coal fired power plants for baseline or dispatch-able power.
In Chapter 9 he addresses the solar dream. He arrives at the same conclusion as everyone with an open mind that solar is expensive and since it is not dispatch- able, ie. can be turned on when needed by the operators of a power system, it cannot replace nuclear.
Chapter 10 is where he addresses the polls and polling data from 30 years ago.
Chapter 11 is a selection of audience questions and answers from the numerous lectures and presentations that he gave prior to writing this book.
Chapter 12 is about his frustrations in the media not conveying his message to the citizens, and a request for help in getting the good news message of nuclear power out to all of the citizens of this country.

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Chad M

Nuclear energy's risks compare well with coal, oil, natural gas, and even renewables

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

In this detailed book about nuclear energy, Bernard L. Cohen turns around the usual argument about risk, timing, and safety. On each of these counts, the stereotype about nuclear energy -- that it's unsafe, not right for this year, or the long-term -- is just the opposite. Cohen's views are shared by most scientists and engineers. The problem is that the material is so complex that few politicians, environmental activists, or businessmen try to learn both sides of the challenge. Consider that, in "the 'foreseeable future', which is generally interpreted to be 100-1000 years" -- the statistics about nuclear energy's output in terms of gigawatts, its globally insignificant radiation, and the alternative results from fossil fuel's air, water, and very long-term mercury pollution -- mean that modern nuclear energy is reasonably safe and sustainable (p. 137, p. 109-110).
In addition, looking at the 500 year scale, the prospects are even better than the at 10, 50, or 100 year time scale ("Several groups, including most government agencies, have adopted 500 years as a reasonable time period for consideration …", p. 137-8). An energy source that has better outcomes over decades and centuries, even thought the initial investments are huge, is just the kind of sustainable energy that a modern, technological, and interconnected world needs.
This book covers all the major challenges and criticisms. It is like an accessible encyclopedia on the topic of energy and public safety that relates to all forms of energy. Written shortly after the Three Mile Island accident it was evident that the US engineers were still optimistic, and most wanted improved reactor designs built in the next ten years ("Proceed rapidly", p. 257). Finally, this book includes one of the most interesting and dynamic features of Springer and Sante Fe Institute science books: an interview section (p. 267-88). Titles like these could become abridged audiobooks somedays, or the basis for documentary films. Today, several of these arguments have been incorporated into "Pandora's Promise".

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Chris Cavanagh

Still an essential read, made more relevant by the global climate debate.

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2016

I read this book about 2 decades ago and found it to be excellent in its technical analysis of a subject that is very important to all of us, more so in the light of the global climate debate. Nuclear power, the one means that we have already at our disposal, could make a major impact on the climate problem but we are unable to make the commitment to it because of the legacy fear that was inculcated in two whole generations. Bernard Cohen debunks the quantum of the threat from nuclear energy and radiation and blames its bad press entirely on the deliberately ignorant media who have built the bogeyman in order to further the sales of their particular media, be it press, TV or radio. On re-reading it recently I was struck by how precisely right he was, even after Chernobyl and Fukushima.

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Nuclear James

One of the best books about nuclear power

Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2007

I read this book just before starting college, and it is one of the reasons I got a degree in nuclear engineering. This book was written after Three Mile Island but before Chernobyl so some statistics may have changed. The overall physics and risk analyses have not changed one bit. There are responses to every challenge nuclear energy has faced, and nuclear energy comes out as the undisputed champion of sustainable energy needed in the future. Too many people think Helen Caldicott and her ilk have all the undisputed arguments against nuclear power, when in fact Bernard Cohen answered all of them quite adeptly 20 years ago. This is the book everyone needs to start with to understand nuclear power.

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Before It's Too Late: A Scientist's Case for Nuclear Energy Hardcover – January 1, 1983

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