By J. Samuel Walker. 168 pp. Berkeley, University of California Press, 2000. $35. ISBN 0-520-22328-4.
The importance of radiation to national security, energy policy,and environmental health has always made the determination ofthe effects of low-dose radiation on health a difficult problem.To establish regulations for the safe use of radiation, federalagencies had to balance the uncertain health consequences ofradiation against the government's interest in nuclear weaponsand nuclear power. Walker, the historian of the United StatesNuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), provides a fascinatingaccount of these dilemmas. Using extensive archives of the AtomicEnergy Commission (AEC), its successor, the NRC, and the EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA), Walker traces the subtle interactions. . . [Full Text of this Article]
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