Re: costs

[Bob Flood <bflood@SLAC.Stanford.EDU>]

>If I remember a previous posting to RADSAFE correctly, the "too cheap to
>meter" phrase was not initiated by anyone in the nuclear industry.  It was
a
>catchy phrase developed by the media after an AEC hearing on Capitol Hill.

The origin of the saying does lie within the nuclear industry. Aubrey Wagner
was the Chairman of the Board for the Tennessee Valley Authority in the
1970s and was more than an advocate of nuclear power, he was fan! At one
time he envisioned TVA operating literally at least one of every commercial
reactor design available in this country and set about to make it happen.
Most of the plants were eventually cancelled and TVA still carries a large
debt as a result. But it was Aubrey Wagner that, in the 1960's, uttered the
phrase "too cheap to meter."
============================
Bob Flood
Dosimetry Group Leader
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
bflood@slac.stanford.edu


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