The nuclear industry is beset by controversy and mischance. Partially constructed plants have been closed down for several reasons. Construction costs have escalated, the demand for power has decreased, and the number of antagonists to nuclear plants has increased tremendously. Nuclear energy, once hailed with hope for a future with cheap, plentiful power, is currently reaching an impasse.
The major cause of the deterioration in the nuclear industry is the fiasco at Three Mile Island in 1979. Ordinary machines break down, and humans are prone to error, but a nuclear power plant accident can cause widespread catastrophe. Salvage operations and cleanup of debris at Three Mile Island are going to take twenty years and more than a billion dollars (more than the plant cost to construct). The most significant factor about the accident is, however, that it has jeopardized the whole future of nuclear energy. Public dissent, present though dormant when the first nuclear plants were constructed, has solidified after the deplorable chaos at Three Mile Island.
Nevertheless, the nuclear plants built twenty and thirty years ago continue to operate safely and economically. Smaller than more recently built plants, they have produced power that is consistently less expensive than power from coal or oil. Newer plants were larger, less safe, and managed and run by less qualified personnel. Many of these plants were designed and constructed so negligently that they are now closed down.
The investigator of the Three Mile Island accident revealed that supervisors and management alike were inadequately trained to cope with a crucial mechanical failure in the nuclear system. Training programs today are developed more precisely. Now prospective operators take two years of classroom work and spend three months under supervision in a control room and two more months at the simulator, a computer programmed to recreate the Three Mile Island disaster, before returning to another two months in the classroom. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission administers oral and written exams before licensing new operators. Every six weeks compulsory refresher courses are given. Presumably, more scrupulous training requisites will reduce the chances of another Three Mile Island debacle.
One solution to the nuclear power plant dilemma may be to standardize facilities, as the French have done. Because France has neither oil nor coal, nuclear power is clearly the solution to its energy demands. The government constructs and operates plants that produce 44% of the nation’s electricity. The French envisage that by 1990 they will have facilities to produce 75% of their power.
Standardization, however, would never be acceptable in the United States, but there are more palatable alternatives. Plants would have to be standardized to some degree. Nuclear wastes must somehow be disposed of more safely than they are at present. Most important of all, safety must be assured to appease the fears of a potent antinuclear coalition of the American public.
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