The Anti-nukes Scuppered Nuclear Power

Devanney, you are a knucklehead. Are you blind to the obvious? Do you not know about the anti-nuke movement, the great groundswell of public opposition to nuclear power? The reason why nuclear power has been a flop is staring you in the face.

Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

But ...

Nuclear power in the US died in the mid-1970's. Only a handful of plants were ordered after 1975, none after 1978, Figure 1. USA nuclear was dead before Three Mile Island.

Figure 1. USA Nuclear Power Plant Orders

By 1975, nuclear's costs had escalated to the point, that nuclear power was no longer economic, Figure 2, in most cases not even close

Figure 2. USA Overnight Cost Plume

The first protest against nuclear power qua nuclear power was at Wyhl in Germany in 1975. There had been sporadic opposition to individual plants before this. But these were focused on the impact on the local way of life and aesthetics, much like the current opposition to wind and solar.

It was not until the mid-70's that sporadic NIMBY opposition to the siting of a particular plant coalesced into something approaching an organized campaign against nuclear power. Even then the movement in the US was largely made up of leftist veterans of the anti-Vietnam protests, keeping the party going.

The target was the social structure, the Man, as much as nuclear power. The general public was not much involved. In 1976, US activists sponsored voter initiatives in a half-dozen states, calling for a moratorium on nuclear plant construction. All were soundly defeated.

Polls showed the American public 2:1 in favor of building nuclear power plants though 1978, Figure 3.. It was only after Three Mile Island in 1979, that US public opinion turned against nuclear.

The RAND corporation did not start chronicling US nuclear plant protests until 1977. By that time nuclear power had already lost the war. The sad fact is that the anti-nukes were late to the party. By the time they got there, something else had closed the party down. All the anti-nuclear power movement did up until Chernobyl was delay, and, in one or two cases, prevent the startup of at the time unneeded plants.