In early 1982, the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS) terminated two nuclear projects, triggering an episode of mass ratepayer insurgency throughout the state. In this survey of the crisis, Dr. Sugai analyzes the political and economic conditions that precipitated the protest and examines citizen opposition to the WPPSS nuclear venture b
This comprehensive guide to research, sources, and theories about nonviolent action as a technique of struggle in social and political conficts discusses the methods and techniques used by groups in various encounters. Although violence and its causes have received a great deal of attention, nonviolent action has not received its due as an international phenomenon with a long history. An introduction that explains the theories and research used in the study provides a practical guide to this essential bibliography of English-language sources. The first part of the book covers case-study materials divided by region and subdivided by country. Within each country, materials are arranged chronologically and topically. The second major part examines the methods and theory of nonviolent action, principled nonviolence, and several closely related areas in social science, such as conflict analysis and social movements. The book is indexed by author and subject.
Looks at the history of nuclear reactors, discusses the process of technological decision making, and examines the political reasons for nuclear power failure
The essential problem is the failure to recognize that controversies over risks are "normal events" in modern society and as such will be with us for the foreseeable future. Three key propositions define these events: risk management decisions are inherently disputable; public perceptions of risk are legitimate and should be treated as such; the public needs to be intensively involved in the processes of risk evaluation and management. Leiss and his collaborators chronicle these organizational risks in a set of detailed case studies on genetically modified foods, cellular telephones, the notorious fuel additive MMT, pulp mill effluent, nuclear power, toxic substances legislation, tobacco, and the new type of "moral risks" associated with genetics technologies such as cloning. Contributors include Debora L. Van Nijnatten (Sir Wilfred Laurier University), Michael D. Mehta (University of Saskatchewan), Stephen Hill (University of Calgary), Éric Darier (Greenpeace), Greg Paoli (Decisionalysis Risk Consultants, Inc.), and Peter V. Hodson (Queen's University).
This David and Goliath story chronicles and analyzes how a small, under-funded public interest group--Durham Nuclear Awareness of Oshawa, Ontario--mobilized opposition to the December 1994 re-licensing of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. Michael D. Mehta explores the struggle between Durham Nuclear Awareness and Canada's nuclear establishment to illustrate how risk as a concept can be used to understand contemporary political conflicts.
These are the stories of the twentieth century on Grays Harbor. Based on two decades of research by the staff of The Daily World, "On the Harbor" is a unique narrative of local history, with separate chapters on the fourteen top stories of the past hundred years and biographies of Citizens of the Century. Also included are a first-hand account by a veteran Wobbly on the free-speech fight of 1911, Ed Van Syckle on sailing with legendary Capt. Ralph E. Peasley, and Murray Morgan on working for the Grays Harbor Washingtonian in Hoquiam during the Depression. With more than a hundred photographs from the archives of the Daily World and the Jones Historical Collection and nearly 200 sidebars on what to read, how to speak like a native and who's who in Harbor history, this book is a suitable for everyone from the casual reader to the ardent scholar, for the coffee table or the school library. Come along and read a century's worth of stories about life on gritty old Grays Harbor.
Why did nuclear energy policies in France, Sweden, and the United States, very similar at the time of the oil crisis of 1973 and 1974, diverge so greatly in the following years? In answering this question, James Jasper challenges one of the most popular trends in political analysis: explanations relying exclusively on political and economic structures to account for public policies. Jasper proposes a new cultural and state-centered approach--one heeding not only structural factors but cultural meanings, individual biographies, and elite discretion. Surveying the period from the successful commercialization of light-water-reactor technology in the early 1960s to the present, he explains the events that occurred after 1973: France built even more reactors than it needed, the United States canceled most reactor orders, and Sweden completed planned nuclear plants but decided to phase out nuclear energy by 2010. This work is based on one hundred interviews with managers, policymakers, and activists in the three countries. In addition to providing a unique theoretical perspective, it broadens our understanding of nuclear policy by looking at three countries in depth and over a long historical span. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
This book explores siting dilemmas - situations in which an "authority" (e.g., Congress, a consortium of utilities) deems it in the best interest of society to build a facility such as an incinerator, but opponents living near the proposed site thwart the plan. Facility developers typically attribute local opposition to selfishness or radically inaccurate views of the risks posed by the facility. We examine the validity of these conclusions by looking in depth at the psychological response that arises when residents are faced with the prospect of living near waste disposal facilities. The particular siting dilemma considered in this book is the problem of how to "dispose" of the high-level nuclear wastes accumulating at nuclear power plants in the United States. These wastes, in the form of "spent" fuel rods, will emit dangerous levels of radioactivity for thousands of years - anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000 years, depending on the margin of safety one adopts. The current proposal is to encase the spent fuel in corrosion-resistant canisters and then to bury these canisters deep underground in a geologic repository. The two of us became involved with the high-level waste issue in 1986 as part of an interdisciplinary research team hired by the State of Nevada. The charge of this team was to estimate the socioeconomic impacts that would accompany a repository if it were built at Yucca Mountain, approximately 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
