A number of reforms in the electric power and other nuclear industries in recent years have focused on improving safety and increasing the number of precautions in place. The early history of the nuclear industry was fraught with government cover-ups of accidents and down- playing of hazards. Operators at a Swedish nuclear plant who noticed high levels of radiation on their monitors on April 28, 1986, and immediately began checking their own facility for leaks, did not learn until twelve hours later that the radiation was coming from an accident that had begun two days earlier at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. In recent years the public has become better informed about accidents and many governments have become more proactive in in- stituting stringent safety measures in response to lessons learned.

Chernobyl was undeniably a disaster but if...