According to Robert Stone, nuclear energy has the power to save the world. As director of the film Pandora’s Promise, Stone makes the case that with “a five-alarm fire bell [ringing] on the climate crisis…it’s time to rethink that fear of nuclear.”1 Although it may be true that natural gas —have led to nuclear plant closures throughout the U.S. This article traces the history of nuclear power in the United States.
1940s, 1950s and 1960s
After the development of the atomic bomb in World War II, scientists realized that they might be able to harness the power of nuclear materials to create energy rather than cause destruction. The United States Energy Act of 1946 established the Atomic Energy Commission. After the success of a U.S. Navy pressurized water reactor program, engineers quickly figured out how to use reactor steam to drive turbines that turned generators to create electricity.2 In 1957, “the world’s first full-scale atomic electric power plant devoted exclusively to peacetime uses” was constructed along the Ohio River north of Pittsburgh in the United States at a cost of $72,500,000.3 Three years later, private financiers funded the construction of Dresden Nuclear Station in Northern Illinois. In the mid to late 1960s, the number of nuclear power plants continued to rise, and the power generated at each individual nuclear plant rose in tandem.4 By the end of the 1960s, the Atomic Energy Commission anticipated that “more than 1,000 reactors would be operating in the United States by 2000.”5
1970s
The early 1970s were a boom time for the nuclear industry. In 1973 the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an embargo on oil shipments to the U.S. and cut production by one quarter.6 This action led to an oil crisis among U.S. energy companies. In the year of 1973 alone U.S. utilities ordered the construction of 41 nuclear power plants in order to meet energy demands.7 As demand rose, however, so too did the environmental movement. Although environmentalists liked that air pollution , they were concerned about nuclear accidents, nuclear proliferation, nuclear terrorism, and radioactive waste disposal.8 These criticisms gained momentum after the accident at Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania on March 28, 1979.9 In that accident a water pump in the cooling system of a pressurized water reactor malfunctioned, causing a partial meltdown of the nuclear core which released radioactive material into the atmosphere.10
1980s and 1990s
Fears about the nuclear industry intensified further after April 26, 1986 when a major accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station near Kiev sent large amounts of radioactive dust across Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Western Europe.11 Nonetheless, by 1996 the number of nuclear reactors in the U.S. had peaked at 110,12 generating about 19 percent of the nation’s electricity.13
During the 1980s and 1990s, U.S. nuclear plant operators also began to fully grasp the problems associated with disposing of the uranium fuel rods utilized in nuclear power generations. The fuel rods in nuclear plants have traditionally been replaced every two years. Unfortunately, even after the uranium is spent, it is still very volatile; creating heat and radioactivity that can contaminate the environment for hundreds of years. Since 1987, Yucca Mountain in Nevada has been the proposed site of a nuclear waste depository. However, the Yucca Mountain project was put on hold in 2009, leaving some 65,000 tons of nuclear waste now in temporary storage throughout the U.S.14 Quarrels about what to do with this waste continue, even as this article is being written, a group of senators is working provide for temporary, centralized storage of nuclear waste.15
Nuclear Power Today
San Onofre nuclear power plant.19Since the Three Mile Island incident in 1979, 19 U.S. reactors have closed or been designated for closure and 4 have been approved for construction. As of June 2013, there were 100 nuclear reactors operational in the United States.16 The San Onofre plant in Southern California, which had helped to power about 1.4 million homes since 1968, was the latest to be taken offline after a tube in a newly installed steam generator started to leak radioactive steam.17 According to Travis Miller, a Chicago-based analyst for Morningstar Inc. (MORN), “the decision to shut down San Onofre is another sign that the economics of nuclear are under pressure given the low cost of alternative sources… Just five years ago, nuclear power plants looked like a gold mine.”18
The Energy Department is also likely to abandon a factory in South Carolina that was built to create a new reactor fuel, called mixed oxide, or MOx, from the plutonium used in retired nuclear bombs. The facility was started as part of an agreement with Russia to shrink the world’s supply of nuclear bomb fuel after the Cold War. However, as the anticipated costs ballooned from $4.9 billion to $7.7 billion, the Energy Department decided to cut its losses.20
Nuclear power plants were “intended to last for as long as they were commercially feasible,” according Robert E. Curry Jr., who was a member of the New York Public Service Commission from 2006 to 2012.21 With low natural gas extraction costs and worries after Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident of 2011, the commercial feasibility of nuclear continues to decrease.22 With four plants closing this year, there are only about four or five that are likely to be built in the next several years.23
Nuclear Power Future
Nuclear power is not going away, especially not abroad. Over 60 nuclear plants are currently being built around the world, most of them in China and India, where power grids haven’t been fully built out (this is called baseload) and there is a high demand for electricity.25;26 The new movie Pandora’s Promise makes a good case that nuclear power is hugely preferable to energy efficiency , we may soon make nuclear a thing of the past.
