The United States' energy crisis, which has received so much publicity lately, has focused national attention on how we are to meet our energy demands. Proposed energy sources include conventional nuclear power plants, breeder reactor and fusion reactor plants, coal gasification, liquid hydrogen, solar energy, and geothermal energy. All of these except conventional fission plants are still on the drawing board or in the experimental laboratory, and are described briefly. Government and industry are betting heavily on conventional nuclear power plants. ($40 billion already spent by private utilities for 30 operating plants, 60 under construction, and 75 on order.) A few unpublicized accidents and more and more complex instrumentation in nuclear power plant control rooms has pointed to a desperate need for more effective ways of training individuals to safely operate these plants. Recognizing this need, General Electric Company designed and built a very realistic computer-driven simulator of a plant control room. The physical enclosures and instrumentation duplicates the Dresden II control room in every way, and response to operator manipulation of controls duplicates that of a real plant. The bulk of this paper describes the simulator and its development. The last section raises questions concerning hazards of continued growth of nuclear power and presents some alternatives.

The nuclear power plant has given new direction to power generation. It offers a new source of heat. The heat can now come from the fission of atomic fuel and not from the burning of fossil fuel. Safety and protection from the possible hazards of radioactivity generated by nuclear power plants is a completely new and untested area. Emergency systems and over designed construction are only part of what has to be done to make absolutely certain such accidents, if they occur, will be contained allowing no harmful radioactivity to reach the environment. Handling of radioactive wastes is very critical in a nuclear power plant. These wastes have to be stored in protective containers and transported to predetermined storage sites. At these sites the containers of radioactive wastes are lowered into large salt mines. Licensing and regulation of nuclear power plants during construction and operation is the responsibility of the Atomic Energy Commission. The five member federal panel has issues strict requirements that must be met in each step in the process of obtaining permits and licenses, construction, and generation.