The Office of Technology Assessment has just published a 405-page book Technology and Soviet Energy ($10, Govt. Prtg. Off., stock no. 052-003-00858-1). Frankly, we continue to be perplexed by the consistently high quality of the reports published by OTA
¾a government office, a Congressional one at that, and one that has Kennedy on the Board, with Udall as vice chairman; but we do not argue with facts.Also outstanding is A.A. Meyerhoff's article "Energy base of the communist-socialist countries" in American Scientist, Nov/Dec. 81, which also includes data on Mainland China. But the "a bully must be humored" attitude, under the surface in the OTA report, is here reflected as "It might be in the best interests of the West and Japan if the USSR were permitted to purchase advanced technology for its oil industry, so as to keep it and its allies out of the world market place."
Finally, the Nov. 81 issue Soviet Life (a slick and lavish journal distributed by the Soviet Embassy in Washington) brings an article "Nuclear Power Stations
¾Safety Guaranteed" with all the usual reasons why Soviet nukes are superior and safer ("In the USSR it is impossible for an operator to be trained by a private organization or company..."). The only interesting point is the sentence "Newly designed reactors will have an improved protective layer shaped like a huge cylinder made of special reinforced concrete which can contain any radioactive discharge and withstand a powerful earthquake, the blow of a crashing aircraft or an object falling from space."The interesting point in this sentence is the future tense. What the tovarishchi are telling you is that they still don't provide their plants with containment buildings, which have always been obligatory throughout the profit-hungry West.
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Vol. 9, No. 5
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Issues Issue/No.: Vol. 9, No. 5 Date: November 23, 2004 01:23 PM Title: Free to choose
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
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