Scientists and scientific journals are naturally inclined towards progress. But there are exceptions: progress is not always better. Last week, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in Rockville, Maryland, announced that it had issued a licence for a new technology to enrich uranium using lasers - a process that is potentially cheaper and better than current enrichment methods, but also politically fraught and possibly dangerous . The decision was unfortunate. The NRC should introduce rules to ensure that its future moves are better informed.
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