America's need for electrical power will double in ten years, Britain's within about 20. Nuclear energy has seemed to hold the answer: with the promise of clean, safe, economical electricity, thanks to the fantastic power in uranium. By the year 2000 half of the United States' grid may be supplied from atomic reactors; two-thirds of our homes could switch on with nuclear power. But now there's opposition. Some scientists ask ' Is it safe?' because radiation is the inevitable danger of splitting the atom. Raymond Baxter , Michael Rodd and William Woollard examine the arguments: do the emergency systems work on America's widely sold ' light water ' reactors? How will the next generation of fast breeders behave? Plutonium can cause cancer and is the stuff of atom bombs: is a future powered by plutonium-fuelled fast breeders advisable? Director PATRICK UDEN Producer LAWRENCE wabi
