News, notes, & comment

In early May a public argument over nuclear reactor safety was precipitated by Keith Miller, professor of mathematics at the university of California/Berkeley and consultant to the Advanced Code Review Group of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Miller had been working on codes for predicting the behavior of the emergency core cooling system (ECCS) during a loss of coolant accident (LOCA). In a memorandum and a long letter to the NRC Commissioners dated May 6 and 7, and in a televised interview on May 12, Miller charged that the codes are totally inadequate to the complexity of the problem of accurate prediction, that the present ECCS has major design flaws, and that NRC is not justified in licensing any more reactors with that design. He also expressed concern that NRC has not been candid with the American public in its implication that there is virtual certitude associated with nuclear power plant operation. Other consultants to the Code Review Group did not share Miller´s views. Miller will continue to serve as a consultant.