Abstract :
In 1975 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) ao cepted the report of a committee headed by Norman Rasmussen, Chairman of Nuclear Engineering at MIT, which conducted a study of U.S. nuclear reactor safety — the Rasmussen Report. An “Executive Summary” of the report presented the main findings in layman´s language. The summary was extensively quoted to the effect that nuclear reactors were extremely safe. [Eg. by Norman Rasmussen in “Electric Power — the Nuclear Option,” National Forum (the Phi Kappa Phi Journal), Fall 1978, pp. 13–17.] Objections were raised, among others, by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Rep. Morris Udall, whose concern led the NRC to set up in 1977 a panel under the chairmanship of physicist Harold Lewis of the University of California to review the Rasmussen Report.
