The Failure of Nuclear Power

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That such a large-scale misfortune as the nuclear power failure should have occurred in the United States, the leader in adapting complex technology to national purposes, is puzzling. It has required decades for society’s controls to come into effect, and they are even now not adequate. The failure developed over a period of thirty five years and no significant efforts were made in that period to reverse the decline and better the industry’s prospects. Any one of the major participants could have acted: the reactor vendors, the electric utilities, the regulatory agency, the Congress, successive administrations. None did.