Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Fifty years ago nuclear power had the potential to save the world. Such plants produce a tremendous amount of energy, produce near zero emissions, rely on little of the earth's resources, and unlike hydro, wind, or solar, can be turned on or off to meet energy needs. By the mid 1970's hundreds of nuclear power plants were scheduled to be built in the US. Generating this much energy, locally, also had the potential to solve the problem of our country's dependence on foreign oil, for which one could argue is a source of trillions of dollars spent in foreign wars. The power generated by these plants was so capable, it was once deemed that energy in the US would be "too cheap to meter".
That all changed in March of 1979 when there was an accident at the Three Mile Island power plant's second reactor in Pennsylvania. While the accident ultimately released very little radiation into the atmosphere, the cost to repair the damaged reactor was unrealistic. But more significant, it scared the hell out of people. Even though there were many other reactors operating safely in the US, and the first reactor at Three Mile Island operated safely for years after, people reacted. A combination of vocal pressure from misled environmental groups, who didn't think to fix, or heighten safety at nuclear power plants, but to eliminate them entirely, and the prevailing economic thought of the day based in Milton Friedman's monetarism, that everything should be determined by the market (meaning generating energy from oil, even coal, was cheaper....for now), and most of the reactors scheduled to be built were ceased, even some already testing, like the dual Satsop reactor in Washington which would have produced enough energy to power most of the homes in Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, and beyond. Over the years to come, other power plants were also shut down early, because no one wanted to pay the (short term) cost to fix them. This includes a reactor in my home state of Oregon, and eventually, Three Mile Island 1. Both reactors sit dormant today.
It's peculiar that while technology can save us, so to speak, the fear of it, that unknown scares us. This was even the case during the incident at Three Mile Island. The accident occurred when a pressure valve stuck open. The reactor would have taken care of itself when this happened, but the technicians in the plant were fearful of what was happening, and shut off the water feeding the reactor. When they did this, it sealed the reactor's fate. The builders of the plant at Babcock & Wilcox had thought of everything, except what would happen when humans interfered.
Fifty years ago nuclear power had the potential to save the world. Such plants produce a tremendous amount of energy, produce near zero emissions, rely on little of the earth's resources, and unlike hydro, wind, or solar, can be turned on or off to meet energy needs. By the mid 1970's hundreds of nuclear power plants were scheduled to be built in the US. Generating this much energy, locally, also had the potential to solve the problem of our country's dependence on foreign oil, for which one could argue is a source of trillions of dollars spent in foreign wars. The power generated by these plants was so capable, it was once deemed that energy in the US would be "too cheap to meter".
That all changed in March of 1979 when there was an accident at the Three Mile Island power plant's second reactor in Pennsylvania. While the accident ultimately released very little radiation into the atmosphere, the cost to repair the damaged reactor was unrealistic. But more significant, it scared the hell out of people. Even though there were many other reactors operating safely in the US, and the first reactor at Three Mile Island operated safely for years after, people reacted. A combination of vocal pressure from misled environmental groups, who didn't think to fix, or heighten safety at nuclear power plants, but to eliminate them entirely, and the prevailing economic thought of the day based in Milton Friedman's monetarism, that everything should be determined by the market (meaning generating energy from oil, even coal, was cheaper....for now), and most of the reactors scheduled to be built were ceased, even some already testing, like the dual Satsop reactor in Washington which would have produced enough energy to power most of the homes in Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, and beyond. Over the years to come, other power plants were also shut down early, because no one wanted to pay the (short term) cost to fix them. This includes a reactor in my home state of Oregon, and eventually, Three Mile Island 1. Both reactors sit dormant today.
It's peculiar that while technology can save us, so to speak, the fear of it, that unknown scares us. This was even the case during the incident at Three Mile Island. The accident occurred when a pressure valve stuck open. The reactor would have taken care of itself when this happened, but the technicians in the plant were fearful of what was happening, and shut off the water feeding the reactor. When they did this, it sealed the reactor's fate. The builders of the plant at Babcock & Wilcox had thought of everything, except what would happen when humans interfered.
