Nuclear Power and the Environment: The Atomic Energy Commission and Thermal Pollution, 1965-1971

Abstract

DDT, mercury, and phosphates, ecological disasters such as a huge oil spill off the coast of California and the death of Lake Erie from industrial pollution, and easily visible evidence of foul air and dirty water fueled public alarm about the deterioration of the environment. At the same time that the environmental crisis commanded increasing attention, questions about the availability of electrical power triggered deepening concern. Since the early 1940s, the use of electricity in the United States had expanded by an average of 7 percent per year, which meant that it roughly doubled every decade. Utility and government planners found no indications that the pace of growth was likely to slow in the near future. A report prepared by the White House Office of Science and Technology in 1968 predicted that the nation would need about 250 mammoth-sized new power plants by 1990. Power blackouts and brownouts became increasingly commonplace in the late 1960s, graphically illustrating the discomfort and inconvenience that a shortage of electricity could cause.'