Editor’s Comments

Please Participate in Running Your Forum

"Volunteers are sought for the Nominating Committee of the Forum on Physics and Society. Members of the Nominating Committee serve for two years, and help prepare slates of candidates in accordance with the by-laws, which can be viewed at http://www.aps.org/units/fps/bylaws.cfm. Anyone that is interested should contact the current chair, George Lewis, at gnlewis@mit.edu"

Erratum

We wish to report an error in our January 2006 issue. In Akio Minato’s article “4S (Super Safe, Small and Simple LMR)”, the last sentence of the section Cost and Economy should read, “The cost study of 4S with 50MWe…shows the busbar cost is around 4 cents/kWh…” . The figure of 40 cents/kWh is in error.

In This Issue

Our readers will note two more articles on aspects of nuclear power, both of which can be construed as pro the expansion of civilian nuclear power. We view the Forum, and this, its quarterly journal, as a forum for physicists  - encouraging the open reasoned discussion of issues important to physicists and the general society in which they are imbedded. Such discussion requires the presentation of all scientifically valid sides to each issue. (We don’t attempt to present the flat earth “alternative” to present “theories” of our Solar System.) It is clear that many people, including many physicists, are skeptical – even hostile – to the growth of nuclear power. They should be attempting to counter the pro-nuclear power materials published in this journal. It has been difficult to obtain such publishable “counter” material. Hence, this is an open invitation for submission of scientifically well-grounded articles, commentaries, or letters on all sides of the nuclear power issue – as well as other public policy issues which have a major physics component.