WHEN THE AWESOME threat of nuclear power first reared its deadly head in the mid '40s, it scared the living hell out of all but the most maniacal "science marches on" people. The world had already seen enough carnage during the Big One; suddenly this omnipotent man-made monster appeared--a god of death that could vaporize entire cities in one nightmarish burst. Thirty years ago no consensus of feelings about The Bomb existed, but one thing was certain--everyone had a lot of respect, and fear, for nuclear technology. In some ways, that ominous and justifiably paranoid feeling remains in America, but for all practical purposes it has disappeared as nuclear devices--warlike and domestic--become commonplace. America's never-ending march towards technological improvement proceeds apace, so effectively that most people, excepting those sympathetic to the anti-nuke movement, think no more about nuclear power than they do about the world hunger problem.

Of course, somewhere in the collective unconscious (heavy on the un) lurks the specter of Armageddon, but even that fear has been defused, what with these new-fangled, clean, tactical weapons. And like many other vaguely leftist movements without mass appeal, the anti-nuclear juggernaut has generated more scorn than support.

All of which makes the appearance of Meltdown at Montague especially welcome. The pamphlet/book, compiled by a group of students and faculty at political trend-setting Hampshire College, details what would happen if a nuclear reactor's radioactive pile got out of control. Known in the trade as "meltdown" because the core reaches an incredible temperature and eventually fuses together--the process creates a virtually unstoppable reaction that releases large quantities of radiation into the atmosphere.

MELTDOWN AT MONTAGUE, however, does not indulge in scare tactics. The possibility of a meltdown, while admittedly slight, does exist. Many people forget the two near-disasters within the last 12 years: in 1966 the Fermi reactor near Detroit suffered a partial meltdown; in 1974 the Browns' Ferry reactor in Alabama went completely out of control when a careless maintenance worker started a fire among the cables used to dampen the reaction, knocking out both the primary and secondary safety systems. Plant engineers later said it was a miracle that they managed to regain control over the reactor before it blew up completely. The point of this book is simply to inform the reader that a total meltdown might happen someday--and probably will, unless society becomes more careful in using nuclear power or swears it off entirely.

The book outlines the chain of events in an imaginary meltdown in April 1991 at the nuclear plant currently proposed for Montague, Massachusetts, a town in the Connecticut River Valley. The Hampshire authors investigate with impressive detail and strong factual arguments the possible scenario. Included are chapters on how the meltdown might occur (following several sections succinctly explaining the workings of a reactor), how radioactivity would be released, an estimate of both short-and long-term casualties, and an estimate of the effects of radioactivity on the environment, specifically food and water supplies.

All of this valuable and frightening information may be old hat to anti-nuke fans, but somehow the general public has lost sight of the facts, particularly in the long and losing battle against the Seabrook, N.H. plant. Meltdown at Montague proves valuable, then, simply because it is the least hysterical and most readable factual account of nuclear power today. While the book most definitely possesses an anti-nuke tone, the reader is hard-pressed to find dogma. The closing pages suggest that because nuclear power plants are here to stay, we must perfect emergency plans to minimize the damage of a possible meltdown. If the idea of a radioactive plume blown eastward over Boston from Montague doesn't make you stop and think--and worry--about nukes, nothing will.

THE HAMPSHIRE GROUP--a self-described collective of five professors and eight students--concludes with a rather grim caveat: "There is only one thing which is certain about improbable events. Sooner or later they happen." As a handbook for anyone concerned with or morbidly fascinated by the prospects of nuclear power, Meltdown at Montague hits the mark. It is a fine example of well-reasoned literature in a field given to hysteria on all sides; it is the kind of book the anti-nuke movement needs.