The development of the nuclear industry in the United States has been different from most other industrial development. In a very real sense, it is one of the first deliberate attempts to understand and control the risks of an emerging large-scale technology. This approach has taken a great deal of planning, research and development, training and careful operations. This point was emphasized in a pioneering report by the Na­tional Research Council, National Academy of Sciences (1956), which stated: “The use of atomic energy is perhaps one of the few major tech­nological developments of the past 50 years in which careful considera­tion of the relationship of a new technology to the needs and welfare of human beings has kept pace with its development. Almost from the very beginning of the days of the Manhattan Project careful attention has been given to the biological and medical aspects of the subject.”

As a result of this approach, the United States atomic energy pro­gram has a record as one of the safest of industries, from the standpoint of radiation hazards as well as of ordinary industrial risks.