Wolf Creek Station: Kansas Gas and Electric Company in the Nuclear Era by Craig Miner

Abstract

394 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE national laboratories, and government/science relations, and is working on a biogra­ phy of Lloyd V. Berkner. Wolf Creek Station: Kansas Gas and Electric Company in the NuclearEra. By Craig Miner. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1993. Pp. xii+393; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $39.50. Wolf Creek Station tells the story of conflicting social groups and institutions during the planning and construction of a nuclear power plant. Written more for the general reader than an academic audience, the book nevertheless details well the years ofacrimonious debate between managers of the Kansas Gas and Electric Company (KG&E) and numerous consumer, environmental, and regulatory opponents. Though completed and operating, unlike many nuclear plants begun in the 1970s, the power station symbolizes the difficulty in managing large, capital-intensive, and centralized technologies at a time when business and social institutions started moving in oppo­ site (“postmodern”) directions. Afterseveralyears ofstudy, KG&E managersmade the finaldecision to build the nuclearplant in 1973. At the time, itseemed like a reason­ able move. Formerly dependent on natural gas for 100 percent ofthe utility’s fuel supply, they prudently sought diversification to hedge against increasing prices for the premium resource. Nuclear power also looked favorable in lightofthe company’s experience in building asupposedlyhigh-efficiencycoal-burningplantthatultimatelyproved to be difficult and costly to operate. Meanwhile, many ofthe country’s other electric utility companies had become extremely bullish on nu­ clear technology, placing numerous orders for new plants in the late 1960s and early 1970s, even though they had accrued little experience in building and operating them. And as fossil fuel costs escalated after the beginning of the energy crisis in 1973, the decision to go nuclear appeared to make even more sense. But company officials did not anticipate the spate of problems that followed their decision. Landowners who faced the loss of their property objected to the utility’s right of eminent domain, a power given to the company, though not a government body, because of its status as a regulated natural monopoly. Environmental groups and citizens with antinuclear leanings repeated arguments heard elsewhere about the potential dangers of radiation. The accident at the Browns Ferry, Alabama, nuclear plant in 1975, which caused $100 million in damage, and the near meltdown at Three Mile Is­ land, Pennsylvania, in 1979 provided more rhetorical and substan­ tive ammunition for Wolf Creek’s detractors. Opponents also found that they could employ the institutions that previously had benignly gone along with plans made by electric util­ ity companies. The Atomic Emergy Commission (and its regulatory TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 395 successor, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) had generally sup­ ported development of nuclear power, but the hearings they were required to schedule gave opposition forces exposure to public me­ dia that latched onto the story because of its drama and potential impact on readers. At the same time, detractors discovered that they could question the management effectiveness of KG&E in the hear­ ing chambers ofthe Kansas Corporation Commission, the state regu­ latory body that until the 1970s had (like other commissions around the nation) concurred with utility decisions. That questioning proved extremely effective as the cost of the plant escalated from an estimated $500 million in 1973, with a scheduled completion date of 1981, to about $3 billion when the plant finally went on line in 1985. Because of the extra costs, customers faced tremendous rate hikes while the company almost went bankrupt and became subject to a takeover bid by another power company. In the end, everyone appeared to suffer from the decision to build the plant. While presenting a useful account of the travails faced by the sup­ porters and opponents of the nuclear power plant, the book never­ theless has its drawbacks, related, perhaps, to the author’s perspec­ tive on events. Having received financial support from KG&E and access to the firm’s resources, Craig Miner often portrays company managers more sympathetically than he does their opponents. Util­ ity managers typically did the best they could, given the information they had and the industry culture in which they worked, while power plant detractors are often described as being uninformed or overly emotional. Arguments for energy efficiency and renewable re­ sources...