Nuclear Implosions
The Rise and Fall of the Washington Public Power Supply System

Daniel Pope follows the collapse of a small public agency's attempts to build five nuclear power plants in the 1970s.

Daniel Pope (Author)

9780521179744, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 17 February 2011

304 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.45 kg

'Pope's important history might be relied upon to predict dubious prospects for nuclear power anywhere in the country, not just in the northwest.' Bruce Hevly, University of Washington

This book follows a small public agency in Washington State that undertook one of the most ambitious construction projects in the nation in the 1970s: the building of five large nuclear power plants. By 1983, delays and cost overruns, along with slowed growth of electricity demand, led to cancellation of two plants and a construction halt on two others. Moreover, the agency defaulted on $2.25 billion of municipal bonds, leading to a monumental court case that took nearly a decade to resolve fully. Daniel Pope sets this in the context of the postwar boom's ending, the energy shocks of the 1970s, a new restraint in forecasting demand, and shifting patterns of municipal finance. Nuclear Implosions also traces the entangling alliance between civilian nuclear energy and nuclear weapons and recounts a telling example of how the law has become a primary method of resolving disputes in a litigious society.

1. Background to fiasco
2. WPPSS steps forward
3. The next wave
4. The construction morass
5. Collapse
6. Endgame
7. Running toward an uncertain future.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], History of the Americas [HBJK]