Archive Report
Archive Report
Growing Source of Power in Atoms
Nuclear Plants as Answer to Need for Electricity
Nuclear energy currently provides only a fraction of the electrical energy consumed in the United States—about three-tenths of one per cent. But it is expected to produce 20 per cent of the nation's electricity in 1980 and perhaps 50 per cent by the year 2000. America is greeting this age of nuclear energy with a curious mixture of resignation, fear and hope. The atom promises to deliver us from the “energy crisis” that has resulted in summer “brownouts” and cascading power failures. But every nuclear plant has what physicist Ralph E. Lapp calls a “Hiroshima halo” around it. For atomic power is still associated with the awesome explosion that ended World War II ...