Concern about nuclear activities of Iran and North Korea have been heightened by renewed attempts of other countries to also develop nuclear capabilities. For example, Toshiba of Japan is bidding $5 billion to buy Westinghouse Electric and its nuclear know-how. Westinghouse has built many nuclear energy plants and is currently building several of the 24 new ones under construction in 10 different countries. At present, there are 443 nuclear plants in operation worldwide, of which the US has 103 (23 percent) functioning ones.

Other bidders who lost out to Westinghouse were Hitachi, Mitsubishi and the US's General Electric (GE). All these bidding giant corporations are trying to gain Westinghouse's knowledge because they believe shortages and problems involved in using fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) which are dominant today, will force the world, including America to turn more and more to nuclear; because the development of alternative energy sources is progressing too slowly to be able to satisfy the world's increasing demand for more energy. All the bidders believe that even America, which has not constructed a new nuclear plant since the Three-Mile Island explosion in 1979, is expected to resume nuclear energy expansion.

Westinghouse's and GE's nuclear knowledge was not obtained recently. I happen to be fully aware of their early attempts to gain nuclear proficiency in the 1950s. I was then assistant to the president of Walter Kidde Nuclear Laboratory, which was headed by Bill Kelley, a former director of nuclear research at a US atomic plant during WWII. Kelley had hired me because I had been assistant to the director of Columbia's nuclear research program; a job that I got because I had worked at Columbia's Lamont Geological Observatory.

Based on Kelley's reputation, Kidde was chosen to build the Savannah, America's first commercial nuclear-powered surface vessel, which we did. It was an engineering and scientific success; but a commercial and economic flop, because no port would allow the ship to enter for fear of an atomic explosion. I vividly recall an incident during the design phase involving a phone call from Admiral Hyman Rickover, who was in charge of all naval nuclear research activities and whose sharp-tongued reputation as a short-tempered much-feared task-master was well deserved. When I took the call, he shouted impatiently, "Give me Kelley-now!" I stayed on the line and heard the admiral bawl Kelley out at length for having missed a minor deadline.

In bidding for other commercial contracts, Kidde almost always was undercut by Westinghouse or by GE - who both lacked extensive experience in nuclear research. They were so anxious to get contracts in order to obtain nuclear know-how on the job that they sometimes won out by offering to do the work for nothing. This caused Kidde Nuclear to go belly-up.

However, if nuclear power plants experience a renaissance now, many enormous problems will have to be solved. There is still no place where long-lasting nuclear wastes can be safely stored; their fuels and wastes can be used to make nuclear bombs; and they are susceptible to terrorist attack. If we are to attain and maintain desirable living standards, society's scientists, engineers, and technologists must develop acceptable, efficient alternative energy sources - lest civilization's remarkable 5,000-year progression will end with a much shorter regression.