nuclear technology was a highly guarded secret, due to the awesome power it generated in war. It was just after the war, in 1946, that the United States government monopolized the new technology under the Atomic Energy Act (Wood, 1983, p. 5).
In the ensuing years, both public and official sentiment grew so that by 1954 a new Atomic Energy Act was put forth, setting up "a program to encourage widespread participation in the development and utilization of atomic energy for peaceful purposes to the maximum extent consistent with the common defense and security and with the health and safety of the public" (Wood, 1983, p. 5).
Of course,, what should be immediately obvious was that at the time, due to the lack of sophistication in understanding the possible hazards of nuclear power, the government did not take into account the possible safety factors involved, but rather remained purposefully vague on the subject.
During the 1960s, the Atomic Energy Commission produced a series of educational movies and advertisements designed to accustom the public to the new theory of nuclear power. In 1974, the AEC was reorganized into the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and given a broad governmental standard of enforcing the new demand for nuclear power (Wood, 1983, pp. 6-7). In fact, as far back as the early 1960s. "American utility companies regarded nuclear power as the cheapest energy source. Reactor sales continued to be strong in the early 1970s; between 1972 and 1974, 110 nuclear plants were ordered in the United States . . . alone" (Kaku & Trainer, 1982, p. 135). As the decade progressed, though, construction costs rose tremendously, coupled with high interest rates, and resulted in a lessening of ordered plants. Many utility companies remained steadfast, believing that it was an absolute necessity to establish a new and renewable source of inexpensive energy for an increasingly urban American population. The irony is ...