Five decades after the first splitting of the atom, the military and civilian applications of nuclear energy have reached a critical juncture, providing an unprecedented opportunity to reexamine both the national and international mechanisms for controlling nuclear energy.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union has eliminated the need to maintain and modernize a large nuclear arsenal and sharpened the focus on horizontal proliferation problems, such as Iraq's clandestine nuclear weapons program, "civil" plutonium production, the potential loss of central Russian control over the former Soviet nuclear arsenal, and North Korea's threatened defection from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

In addition, both the United States and Russia are faced with the staggering environmental legacy of fifty years of nuclear weapons production. On the civilian side, utilities have canceled or deferred plans to build more than 100 nuclear power plants since the early 197Os in response to nuclear safety concerns, limited on-site waste storage capacity, the absence of a permanent high-level nuclear waste repository, and high capital and operating costs as compared with other energy sources.

A reasoned reevaluation of military and civilian applications of nuclear energy is being thwarted by antiquated, undemocratic Cold War policies that polarize citizens, industry, and government into militant pro- and anti-nuclear camps, leading to gridlock in solving such key problems as the disposal of high-level nuclear waste.

Written by a diverse group of experts, Controlling the Atom in the 21st Century offers an alternative problem-solving approach to these issues - one that seeks to minimize the environmental and security risks posed by nuclear energy while ensuring a more open, fair-minded assessment of its potential benefits as an energy source.