What do you think?
Rate this book
Higher Power: An American Town's Story of Faith, Hope, and Nuclear Energy
An in-depth, timely examination of one town’s nuclear power plant, the scandal that plagued it, and the reporter who was allowed inside.
Nuclear power once promised to be the solution to the world’s energy crisis, but that all changed in the late twentieth century after multiple high-profile accidents and meltdowns. Power plant workers, finding themselves the subject of public opposition, became leery of reporters. But one plant in Zion, Illinois, just forty miles north of Chicago, allowed unrestricted access to one the Chicago Tribune’s Casey Bukro, one of the first environmental reporters in the country. Bukro spent two years inside the Zion nuclear plant, interviewing employees, witnessing high-risk maintenance procedures, and watching the radiation exposure counter on his own dosimeter tick up and up.
In Higher Power, Bukro’s reporting from the plant is prefaced by a compelling history of the city of Zion, including a tell-all of John Alexander Dowie, a nineteenth-century “faith healer” who founded Zion, and whose evangelism left a mark on the city well into the modern era, even as a new “higher” power—nuclear energy—moved into town.
With the acceleration of climate change, the questions and challenges surrounding nuclear power have never been more relevant. How did the promise of nuclear energy fizzle out? Should we try to address the mistakes made in the past? What part could nuclear power play in our energy future? Higher Power explores these questions and examines one American town’s attempts to build a better society as a bellwether for national policy and decision making.
Nuclear power once promised to be the solution to the world’s energy crisis, but that all changed in the late twentieth century after multiple high-profile accidents and meltdowns. Power plant workers, finding themselves the subject of public opposition, became leery of reporters. But one plant in Zion, Illinois, just forty miles north of Chicago, allowed unrestricted access to one the Chicago Tribune’s Casey Bukro, one of the first environmental reporters in the country. Bukro spent two years inside the Zion nuclear plant, interviewing employees, witnessing high-risk maintenance procedures, and watching the radiation exposure counter on his own dosimeter tick up and up.
In Higher Power, Bukro’s reporting from the plant is prefaced by a compelling history of the city of Zion, including a tell-all of John Alexander Dowie, a nineteenth-century “faith healer” who founded Zion, and whose evangelism left a mark on the city well into the modern era, even as a new “higher” power—nuclear energy—moved into town.
With the acceleration of climate change, the questions and challenges surrounding nuclear power have never been more relevant. How did the promise of nuclear energy fizzle out? Should we try to address the mistakes made in the past? What part could nuclear power play in our energy future? Higher Power explores these questions and examines one American town’s attempts to build a better society as a bellwether for national policy and decision making.
- GenresNonfiction
453 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 27, 2023
2 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 18, 2024
I didn't love this book but I learned so much. This is never a book I would have picked up, but I'm not mad that I had to read it. Prior to reading this book, the only other book on nuclear energy I had ever read was, "Midnight in Chernobyl" which was slightly terrifying. Higher Power is not that kind of book. Broken into three parts: Higher Power has a mix of different nuclear themes. The first section is about Dowie, a religious leader/fanatic/hypocrite and the founder of the city of Zion in Illinois. The second part of the book is about the nuclear plant with twin reactors that was built in the town. The author was able to spend nearly two years there as a journalist working for the Chicago Tribune. The final section of the book is a bit of a hodge podge about the future of nuclear energy, former workers of the Zion plant, and the decommissioning process, and other nuclear disasters. It was all interesting - but a very dense read.
July 23, 2023
This aptly named book really is about nuclear energy. But the first 13 chapters (Part I) of Higher Power are a biographical history of Zion, Illinois Founder, John Alexander Dowie, a nineteenth-century “faith healer” in the same huckster genre and time of PT Barnum near the end of the 19th century. The author, Casey Bukro does an excellent job of presenting the zealous, single-minded, shameless, self-serving, unscrupulous, and genius pursuits of Dowie, a colorful, bible thumping British immigrant by way of Australia. Dowie died (apparently to his surprise) in 1907 but his corrupt spirit lived in his successor for decades after his death. After all, what can go wrong in a rural town founded on a rigid religious sect’s beliefs? A small city that’s just a short hop up Lake Michigan’s beach from the city of Chicago? Eventually the City of Zion’s leadership got past their predictable and ancient differences. Although Zion’s religious history still lives in some of its citizens’ memories, street names, and ordinances, it came to share the culture of a typical Midwest American city.
By 1968 in the story the ghost of Dowie along with Bukro’s narrative must have been getting restless. Referring to that era in the City’s history, and ready to segue Bukro says, “A man like Dowie would be looking for the next big thing that promised a rebirth in a time of emerging technology. He would grab it with both hands. But what could that be? It would be nuclear power.” That nuclear power story starts with Chapter 14, and you could skip the first part of the book if that’s all you’re interested in, although Dowie’s story is well told by Bukro.
I am an advocate for nuclear power. That’s how this book got my attention. I enjoyed reading it and learned a lot. If you’re interested in learning more about nuclear power, Bukro does a good job of explaining the technology to a willing student. But an in-depth understanding of nuclear power is not required to benefit from reading Bukro’s well written story. What was interesting to me was how peoples’ perceptions of technology define their reality. Perception is an area the nuclear industry should understand better. Bukro spent two years and four months inside the Zion Nuclear Power Station (1983 to 1985) and was given full access to the plant. That makes him unique as a reporter. We see nuclear power being created through his eyes and for the most part he does a good job of remaining objective. He was an investigative journalist for the Chicago Tribune at the time. His stories can still be accessed via the Tribune. For example, see Nuclear People, Chicago Tribune, June 16, 1985, which was written 21 months after he started working inside the plant.
My differences with Bukro would center on the fact he gives credibility to the linear no-threshold model (LNT) standard, which is that all radiation is bad, and exposure to it is cumulative. He seems to report from that perspective, and then at the end of the book points out this standard is accepted by some scientists. He then spends some ink on giving them a voice. My problem with LNT is that low radiation exposure is difficult to correlate to future cancers because of all the other lifestyle influences that could also cause cancer. There is also evidence that low levels of radiation are required to allow living species to adapt and successfully evolve. Bukro does inform the reader that natural background radiation exists all around us. The other foundational standard Bukro seems to accept is As Low as Reasonably Achievable (ALARA). Reasonable is a term that is subjective, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) interprets that word conservatively and forces nuclear plants to emit less radiation than other sources of power and even natural background radiation. In my opinion these two standards have resulted in the over engineering of nuclear plants and made them more complex and expensive than was necessary. Plants like Zion have over 200,000 parts and must have as many as four back-ups of critical parts (like pumps), and make sure they’re all working. That over engineering, over testing (my opinion) and then micromanaging by the NRC could have contributed to many of the safety violations cited in Bukro’s book. Two out of the three big nuclear accidents were caused from mistakes made during testing. The treatment was worse than the disease.
The other thing that bugs me about antinuclear arguments is they go on ad nauseum about the risk of radiation without using real or relative data. They don’t say, for example, Coal plants emit 100 times more radiation than a nuclear plant (relative risk). Or that 30 millirems per hour of radiation are emitted from the walls of the US Capital Hallways, an amount that would not be allowed in most areas of a nuclear plant. And they rarely talk about how many people die of radiation from working at a nuclear plant in terms of X out of 100,000 (real risk). Bukro does report that there have been no deaths from radiation exposure at a US commercial nuclear plant. He did report on the three deaths from radiation exposure in 1961 that occurred at the SL-1 nuclear test reactor at Idaho National Laboratory.
Here’s why I liked this book. A journalist’s role should not include being a friend to the subjects they are covering. They should be demanding, persistent, ask direct questions, give the other side of the story, shine a light on things the public has a right to know. In those things I give Bukro an A plus. I am not a fan of cover-ups, blowing off reporters’ inquiries, suppressing whistle-blower concerns, and secretive management practices, not in any industry, including the nuclear industry. We need good investigative journalists pushing for truth wherever authority and power reside. That includes wind and solar by-the-way, maybe Bukro’s next book? I felt Bukro was making a professional effort to be objective about the Zion nuclear plant. I met him halfway and did my best to be objective in reading his book. A nuclear plant is built to have about the same life expectancy as a US Citizen. I believe our light water reactors like Zion’s could operate safely for 100 years with proper maintenance and upgrades. So, when the Zion Nuclear Power Station was shut down at age 25 it was a tragedy. Was it a tragedy it was ever built in the first place? Or was it a tragedy that it never offered its full benefits to the City of Zion (in fact it became a liability), the country, and the world? Bukro fairly explores these questions with a variety of people on both sides of the issue. And he gave me an education on considering the decommissioning stage of life of a nuclear reactor. I found myself appreciating the answers and points of view of those he interviewed, even the ones I disagreed with. Workers and management of the Zion plant were interviewed during Bukro’s time inside the plant and then many years later. Everything I would have said was said by these people. Bukro also does a great job of outlining the work going on now with Generation IV nuclear technology, including its challenges and prospects.
The Three Mile Island (TMI) accident of 1979 has its own chapter near the end of the book. Billed as one of America’s greatest industrial accidents, where not one person was injured, not one person died, and radiation exposure was so minimal as to be slightly above background radiation if you were standing on its fence line during the accident. Bukro does a lot of reporting on the reporting of that event. That’s okay because that’s the story of TMI. Bukro was there and his reporting of that event in real time was given high grades. It wasn’t so much the technology that failed but the lack of clear communication. TMI can be credited with being the inspiration behind the Simpsons, the smashing success of the Movie China Syndrome (which came out 12 days later), and a rejection of nuclear power by the public for the next three decades. And arrogance from the nuclear industry at that time was the primary reason for the publics loss of confidence.
Just as I thought the book was about to end, Bukro added a chapter on the threat the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine is under because of Russia’s 2022 invasion of that country. The plant is a pawn in a hot war while Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin threatens the world he’ll use nuclear weapons. Thus, Bukro neatly ties a bow around the destructive and productive sides of nuclear power, as if they can never be separated. But I wondered what would have happened if Germany didn’t shut down their 17 nuclear reactors after the Fukushima Daiichi accident which took place in 2011. Maybe Putin would not have been emboldened thinking he had the juice Europe needed to run on. The alternative history, I’d argue, is the more nuclear plants generating power, the safer the world could be.
Casey Bukro has provided a well written, and valuable documentation of nuclear energy history with Higher Power. For anyone in the nuclear industry, including developers and advocates of Generation IV nuclear technology, this book should be a must read. Scientists often tell me it’s failed experiments that are hard to find data on. The many things that didn’t work often inform more than the few things that do work. But only the things that worked get widely published. The Zion Nuclear Power Plant was a failure with many lessons for the future. Higher Power exposes those lessons from the perspective of an investigative journalist. Maybe Bukro’s best take away advice to the nuclear industry is, “Winning them back by acting like a sympathetic neighbor talking over the back yard fence in plain English would be a good start at demystifying nuclear energy. Treat them with respect. Have a heart.”
We need more Casey Bukro’s out there in the world asking questions.
By 1968 in the story the ghost of Dowie along with Bukro’s narrative must have been getting restless. Referring to that era in the City’s history, and ready to segue Bukro says, “A man like Dowie would be looking for the next big thing that promised a rebirth in a time of emerging technology. He would grab it with both hands. But what could that be? It would be nuclear power.” That nuclear power story starts with Chapter 14, and you could skip the first part of the book if that’s all you’re interested in, although Dowie’s story is well told by Bukro.
I am an advocate for nuclear power. That’s how this book got my attention. I enjoyed reading it and learned a lot. If you’re interested in learning more about nuclear power, Bukro does a good job of explaining the technology to a willing student. But an in-depth understanding of nuclear power is not required to benefit from reading Bukro’s well written story. What was interesting to me was how peoples’ perceptions of technology define their reality. Perception is an area the nuclear industry should understand better. Bukro spent two years and four months inside the Zion Nuclear Power Station (1983 to 1985) and was given full access to the plant. That makes him unique as a reporter. We see nuclear power being created through his eyes and for the most part he does a good job of remaining objective. He was an investigative journalist for the Chicago Tribune at the time. His stories can still be accessed via the Tribune. For example, see Nuclear People, Chicago Tribune, June 16, 1985, which was written 21 months after he started working inside the plant.
My differences with Bukro would center on the fact he gives credibility to the linear no-threshold model (LNT) standard, which is that all radiation is bad, and exposure to it is cumulative. He seems to report from that perspective, and then at the end of the book points out this standard is accepted by some scientists. He then spends some ink on giving them a voice. My problem with LNT is that low radiation exposure is difficult to correlate to future cancers because of all the other lifestyle influences that could also cause cancer. There is also evidence that low levels of radiation are required to allow living species to adapt and successfully evolve. Bukro does inform the reader that natural background radiation exists all around us. The other foundational standard Bukro seems to accept is As Low as Reasonably Achievable (ALARA). Reasonable is a term that is subjective, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) interprets that word conservatively and forces nuclear plants to emit less radiation than other sources of power and even natural background radiation. In my opinion these two standards have resulted in the over engineering of nuclear plants and made them more complex and expensive than was necessary. Plants like Zion have over 200,000 parts and must have as many as four back-ups of critical parts (like pumps), and make sure they’re all working. That over engineering, over testing (my opinion) and then micromanaging by the NRC could have contributed to many of the safety violations cited in Bukro’s book. Two out of the three big nuclear accidents were caused from mistakes made during testing. The treatment was worse than the disease.
The other thing that bugs me about antinuclear arguments is they go on ad nauseum about the risk of radiation without using real or relative data. They don’t say, for example, Coal plants emit 100 times more radiation than a nuclear plant (relative risk). Or that 30 millirems per hour of radiation are emitted from the walls of the US Capital Hallways, an amount that would not be allowed in most areas of a nuclear plant. And they rarely talk about how many people die of radiation from working at a nuclear plant in terms of X out of 100,000 (real risk). Bukro does report that there have been no deaths from radiation exposure at a US commercial nuclear plant. He did report on the three deaths from radiation exposure in 1961 that occurred at the SL-1 nuclear test reactor at Idaho National Laboratory.
Here’s why I liked this book. A journalist’s role should not include being a friend to the subjects they are covering. They should be demanding, persistent, ask direct questions, give the other side of the story, shine a light on things the public has a right to know. In those things I give Bukro an A plus. I am not a fan of cover-ups, blowing off reporters’ inquiries, suppressing whistle-blower concerns, and secretive management practices, not in any industry, including the nuclear industry. We need good investigative journalists pushing for truth wherever authority and power reside. That includes wind and solar by-the-way, maybe Bukro’s next book? I felt Bukro was making a professional effort to be objective about the Zion nuclear plant. I met him halfway and did my best to be objective in reading his book. A nuclear plant is built to have about the same life expectancy as a US Citizen. I believe our light water reactors like Zion’s could operate safely for 100 years with proper maintenance and upgrades. So, when the Zion Nuclear Power Station was shut down at age 25 it was a tragedy. Was it a tragedy it was ever built in the first place? Or was it a tragedy that it never offered its full benefits to the City of Zion (in fact it became a liability), the country, and the world? Bukro fairly explores these questions with a variety of people on both sides of the issue. And he gave me an education on considering the decommissioning stage of life of a nuclear reactor. I found myself appreciating the answers and points of view of those he interviewed, even the ones I disagreed with. Workers and management of the Zion plant were interviewed during Bukro’s time inside the plant and then many years later. Everything I would have said was said by these people. Bukro also does a great job of outlining the work going on now with Generation IV nuclear technology, including its challenges and prospects.
The Three Mile Island (TMI) accident of 1979 has its own chapter near the end of the book. Billed as one of America’s greatest industrial accidents, where not one person was injured, not one person died, and radiation exposure was so minimal as to be slightly above background radiation if you were standing on its fence line during the accident. Bukro does a lot of reporting on the reporting of that event. That’s okay because that’s the story of TMI. Bukro was there and his reporting of that event in real time was given high grades. It wasn’t so much the technology that failed but the lack of clear communication. TMI can be credited with being the inspiration behind the Simpsons, the smashing success of the Movie China Syndrome (which came out 12 days later), and a rejection of nuclear power by the public for the next three decades. And arrogance from the nuclear industry at that time was the primary reason for the publics loss of confidence.
Just as I thought the book was about to end, Bukro added a chapter on the threat the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine is under because of Russia’s 2022 invasion of that country. The plant is a pawn in a hot war while Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin threatens the world he’ll use nuclear weapons. Thus, Bukro neatly ties a bow around the destructive and productive sides of nuclear power, as if they can never be separated. But I wondered what would have happened if Germany didn’t shut down their 17 nuclear reactors after the Fukushima Daiichi accident which took place in 2011. Maybe Putin would not have been emboldened thinking he had the juice Europe needed to run on. The alternative history, I’d argue, is the more nuclear plants generating power, the safer the world could be.
Casey Bukro has provided a well written, and valuable documentation of nuclear energy history with Higher Power. For anyone in the nuclear industry, including developers and advocates of Generation IV nuclear technology, this book should be a must read. Scientists often tell me it’s failed experiments that are hard to find data on. The many things that didn’t work often inform more than the few things that do work. But only the things that worked get widely published. The Zion Nuclear Power Plant was a failure with many lessons for the future. Higher Power exposes those lessons from the perspective of an investigative journalist. Maybe Bukro’s best take away advice to the nuclear industry is, “Winning them back by acting like a sympathetic neighbor talking over the back yard fence in plain English would be a good start at demystifying nuclear energy. Treat them with respect. Have a heart.”
We need more Casey Bukro’s out there in the world asking questions.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews