The Nuclear Option

Popular wisdom holds that safety concerns, fueled by the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, Penn., eventually shuttered nuclear construction by the Tennessee Valley Authority


Ratepayers on both sides of that fence paid for the past failures of nuclear power; Three Mile Island was just the final blow to an entire industry in meltdown. Nationwide, utilities that had invested in the promise of clean, relatively inexpensive nuclear energy instead faced spiraling cost overruns compounded by stricter federal regulation. But because of TVA