Hostages of Each Other: The Transformation of Nuclear Safety since Three Mile Island
by Joseph V. Rees
List Price:
Our Price: $21.70
You Save: $3.30 (13%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.34 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Joseph V. ReesEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-06-15
ISBN: 0226706885
Number of pages: 245
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Book Reviews of Hostages of Each Other: The Transformation of Nuclear Safety since Three Mile Island
Book Review: Disappointing analysis
Summary: 3 Stars
For a long time I have been looking for a book with a coherent and convincing analysis on successful self-regulation. Well, perhaps any type of successful regulation. Books on regulatory failure are much easier to come by. And this book had such a promising setting. The claim: A single catastrophic accident at any one US nuclear plant would have ruinous consequences for the entire industry. Each licencee is a hostage of every other licencee. Safety pays! Result: the nuclear industry has founded the INPO organization, to police uniform high safety standards, simply to protect industry's huge investment in nuclear power.
Rees' basic hypothesis is that nuclear power plants operate on some sort of Enlightened Self Interest (ESI). This assumption on rationality is never explicitly stated however, nor is it examined critically. But Rees argues from industry sources that nuclear plants strive to be safe, they compete with each other to be the safest, and that the nuclear industry provide INPO with muscle to make life difficult for those who either cannot or will not do so.
Surprisingly, many of Rees' examples have kind of a dualism. On the one hand, Rees' examples tell a story on how the Three Mile Island accident resulted in soul searching and catharsis, how the transformaton has resulted in increased industry responsibility, how new controls have been set up, and how INPO succesfully fulfills its policing role. But many of the examples could equally well be interpreted the other way around:
- that INPO has been given only weak powers - the so-called Management by Embarassment in closed industry fora. Not stong ones; because linking INPO evaluations and insurance cost, for instance, can affect stock price enormously (p94)
- that INPO is extremely cautious not to alienate its sponsor base (p145)
- that the "safety pays" notion is not widely shared across industry, to say the least, and that cost-cutting on safety is widespread
- that the wake-up call from Three-Mile Island is not received by all actors
For instance, take the example of the INPO crack-down in 1987 - eight years after TMI (!) - on a plant where all operators had fallen asleep on several occasions, leaving operating reactors unattended. Is this an example of a more fundamental free-rider problem in the industry and an opportunity to re-examine the rational ESI assumption ?- or is it an example of succesful INPO peer-pressure intervention? Rees only considers the latter.
It is a mystery to me why Rees has not exploited this alternative line of interpretation and the reason why I find the analysis disappointing.
Rees demonstrates that self-regulation can improve the safety of some plants, likely in ways that public regulation cannot achieve and possibly in a more efficient manner. But the analysis fails to demonstrate that self-regulation can replace public regulation, which is surprising, bearing in mind the "hostages of each other" setting of the analysis.
Engineering Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Engineering Books
Latitude Hooks and Azimuth Rings: How to Build and Use 18 Traditional Navigational Instrumentsby Dennis Fisher
International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; Published: 1994-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.58
Price in other shops:
Troubleshooting Marine Dieselsby Peter Compton
International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; Published: 1997-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.78
Price in other shops:
Communication Systemsby A. Bruce Carlson, Paul Crilly, Janet Rutledge
McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math; Published: 2001-06-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.00
Voice and Data Communications Handbook (Mcgraw-Hill Series on Computer Communications)by Regis J. Bates, Donald W. Gregory, Bud Bates
Mcgraw-Hill (Tx); Published: 1996-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.25
Price in other shops:
Engineering Circuit Analysisby William Hayt, Jack Kemmerly, Steven Durbin
McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math; Published: 2007-02-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $109.95
Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach w/ Student Resources DVDby Yunus A. Cengel, Michael A. Boles
McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math; Published: 2005-06-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $110.99
Alien Agendaby Jim Marrs
HarperTorch; Published: 1998-07-08; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
The Yard: Building a Destroyer at the Bath Iron Worksby Michael S. Sanders
HarperCollins; Published: 1999-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.49
Price in other shops:
Laboratory Manual for Microelectronic Circuitsby Smith Sedra, Adel S. Sedra
Oxford University Press; Published: 1991-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $168.50
Longitudeby Dava Sobel
Harpercollins Audio; Published: 1996-12-02; Hardcover; Book
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Just Culture: Balancing Safety and Accountabilityby Sidney Dekker
Ashgate Publishing Company; Published: 2007-12-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.78
Price in other shops:
The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern Worldby Daniel Yergin
Penguin Press HC, The; Published: 2011-09-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.89
Price in other shops:
Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidentsby James T. Reason
Ashgate Publishing Company; Published: 1997-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $35.47
Price in other shops:
TMI 25 Years Later: The Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant Accident and Its Impactby Bonnie Osif
Pennsylvania State University Press; Published: 2004-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $26.00
Price in other shops:
Safety at the Sharp End: A Guide to Non-Technical Skillsby Rhona Flin, Paul O'Connor and Margaret Crichton
Ashgate Publishing Company; Published: 2008-02-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $34.67
Price in other shops:
Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologiesby Charles Perrow
Princeton University Press; Published: 1999-09-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.20
Price in other shops:
Drift into Failureby Sidney Dekker
Ashgate; Published: 2011-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.95
Price in other shops:
The Field Guide to Understanding Human Errorby Sidney Dekker
Ashgate Publishing Company; Published: 2006-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $27.12
Price in other shops:
Managing the Unexpected: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertaintyby Karl E. Weick, Kathleen M. Sutcliffe
Jossey-Bass; Published: 2007-08-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.48
Price in other shops:
Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspectiveby J. Samuel Walker
University of California Press; Published: 2006-01-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.52
Price in other shops: