A Deceiving Calm.

During the 1980s proponents of nuclear power had much to celebrate. The technology worked, and it did so without burning up the earth's coal and oil reserves and without spewing noxious fossil-fuel pollutants from conventional power plants into the atmosphere. By 1989 there were 426 nuclear power plants worldwide, and the 110 plants located in the United States that year supplied nearly one-fifth of the nation's electricity. All, however, was not well in the nation's nuclear power industry.

A Torrent of Problems.

The nuclear power industry in the United States was beset with problems. During the 1980s not one new order was placed for a nuclear power plant anywhere in the country. Cost overruns in construction and maintenance of reactors was much higher than had been anticipated. It was not uncommon for the final price tag of a nuclear plant to exceed tenfold the...