Safe Enough?
Article
Safe Enough? is a recurring book in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between July 01, 2023 and September 08, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as ""Safe Enough?” was not written as a defense of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission”; “This is where “Safe Enough?” is weakest”; “7 : Safe Enough?“. It most often appears alongside 1960 Valdivia earthquake, AEC, Atomic Energy Commission.
Metadata
- Category: Books
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: July 01, 2023
- Last seen: September 08, 2023
Appears In
Related Pages
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- 1960 Valdivia earthquake (1 shared issues)
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- AEC (1 shared issues)
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- Atomic Energy Commission (1 shared issues)
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- Bayesian priors (1 shared issues)
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- Brown’s Ferry Nuclear Plant (1 shared issues)
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- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (1 shared issues)
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- California (1 shared issues)
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- Camp Fire (1 shared issues)
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- Chernobyl (1 shared issues)
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- Chernobyl (1 shared issues)
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- Chile (1 shared issues)
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- The Question Of Separatism (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
The quotes are from the book Safe Enough? A History of Nuclear Power and Accident Risk, by Thomas Wellock. In his day job, Wellock is the official historian of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), an organization whose official responsibilities include screaming ‘Yes!’ to anyone who broaches this question. A coarsely cynical reader might thus expect Wellock to sidestep damning details of nuclear risk at the behest of his employer. This cynicism does a disservice to Wellock’s ambition.
Yet "Safe Enough?" is less of a history of events than a biography of an idea, the birth of "Probabilistic Risk Assessment" as the guiding principle for understanding and mitigating risks in complex systems. The heroes of Wellock's book are not nuclear plant night shift assistant supervisors, or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission training and assessment specialists, though they each make important cameos. The city of Toledo, Ohio is not safeguarded by watchful superheroes. It is protected by a methodology.
"Safe Enough?" was not written as a defense of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's regimented style. But as an outsider reading about the math for the first time, it became clear to me that once the NRC chose to implement Probabilistic Risk Assessment, an intrusive bureaucracy became its destiny.
1: Cities And The Wealth Of Nations / The Question Of Separatism 2: Lying For Money 3: Why Machines Will Never Rule The World 4: Man’s Search For Meaning 5: Njal’s Saga 6: Public Citizens 7: Safe Enough? 8: Secret Government 9: The Educated Mind 10: The Laws Of Trading 11: On The Marble Cliffs 12: The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich 13: The WEIRDest People In The World 14: The Mind Of A Bee 15: Why Nations Fail 16: Zuozhuan
Inline links: Cities And The Wealth Of Nations / The Question Of Separatism, Lying For Money, Why Machines Will Never Rule The World, Man’s Search For Meaning, Njal’s Saga, Public Citizens, Safe Enough?, Secret Government, The Educated Mind, The Laws Of Trading, On The Marble Cliffs, The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich, The WEIRDest People In The World, The Mind Of A Bee, Why Nations Fail, Zuozhuan