Nuclear-Power Industry Enjoys Revival 30 Years After Accident

By TIMOTHY AEPPEL
Wall Street Journal

Thirty years after the accident at Three Mile Island, the nuclear power industry is moving ahead with plans to build a string of new reactors in the U.S., though the revival faces many uncertainties.

The crisis that erupted in the predawn hours of March 28, 1979, when a combination of worker mistakes and equipment malfunctions triggered a partial meltdown in the core of one of two reactors at a power plant near Harrisburg, Pa., was long thought to have sealed the fate of the industry in the U.S.

But rising concerns about global warming have set the stage for a comeback. Nuclear power can generate electricity without producing the greenhouse gases associated with energy sources such as coal.

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The partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island plant, shown this month, set P/>This green dimension is a surprising shift from the past, when nuclear power was widely demonized by environmentalists, and is one reason public acceptance of the technology appears to be growing. A Gallup poll released last week found 59% of people favor its use, including 27% strongly in favor.

This green dimension is a surprising shift from the past, when nuclear power was widely demonized by environmentalists, and is one reason public acceptance of the technology appears to be growing. A Gallup poll released last week found 59% of people favor its use, including 27% strongly in favor./P> back nuclear power in U.S. for decades.

The partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island plant, shown this month, set P/>This green dimension is a surprising shift from the past, when nuclear power was widely demonized by environmentalists, and is one reason public acceptance of the technology appears to be growing. A Gallup poll released last week found 59% of people favor its use, including 27% strongly in favor./P> back nuclear power in U.S. for decades.

The U.S. has 104 reactors from the earlier wave of construction, which generate about 20% of the nation's electricity. Utilities have applied to build 26 new reactors, often at or adjacent to existing plants, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has to approve the plans, says the first approvals could come by 2011. Given how long it takes to build a plant, the first wouldn't come on line until later in the decade.

(More here.)