Nuclear reactor safety, a review of the Rasmussen report (WASH -1400)

The US Reactor Safety Study (WASH-1400), often referred to as RSS or the Rasmussen Report, sets out to estimate the risk to which the public is exposed by the possibility of an accident in one of the first 100 nuclear power stations situated in the USA. This review briefly describes the methods used in RSS, and indicates how the results were obtained. It then discusses the nature of these results, and the comparisons which RSS makes between them and other accident statistics. Finally, the criticisms which have been levelled at RSS are assessed, and the conclusions of a very recent US Nuclear Regulatory Commission review are included in appendix. RSS concludes that the risk due to reactor accidents is smaller than that associated with many other aspects of everyday life. While there are shortcomings in RSS, the author has little doubt that the above conclusion is valid