Environment: The Struggle over Nuclear Power

Like an infantry platoon under an artillery bombardment, the power industry has spent most of the past year hunkered down in the trenches as its opponents pounded away with questions and criticism. But now, in a campaign that could well determine the future of nuclear power, pro-nuclear forces are on the offensive. Around the nation, power-company officials at press conferences and on podiums have been presenting figures to show that nuclear energy is more practical than other alternatives to oil. In Washington last week, a parade of executives, engineers and federal officials trooped before a joint congressional committee to rebut charges that their installations are unsafe and to convince an increasingly anxious American public that nuclear power plants are necessary.

One reason for the campaign is that on June 8 Californians will go to the polls not only to choose among presidential candidates but to vote on a nuclear referendum. Proposition 15 on the ballot is not, as some opponents have charged, a proposal to outlaw nuclear power plants. Yet, if enacted, the measure could accomplish exactly that. The California initiative would ban the construction of 28 new plants planned for the state over the next two decades unless they met stringent safety standards and won approval by a two-thirds vote in both houses of the state's legislature.

Recent Threat. Proposition 15 could also force the closing of the three nuclear plants now operating in California. It would forbid existing plants to operate at more than 60% of capacity unless federal limits on liability in case of an accident are raised above the recently extended $560 million ceiling. It would also further reduce power output by 10% a year unless two-thirds of the state's legislators endorsed waste-disposal and safety measures. Many believe that the two-thirds approval required in the legislature constitutes an impassable barrier.

The anti-nuclear drive is not unique to California. At least 17 states are now considering various measures to curtail nuclear power. Passage of Proposition 15 in California could thus have far-reaching effects on the power debate in these states.

The threat is relatively recent. In polls conducted last year, over 70% of Californians and 60% of the public nationwide approved of the expansion of nuclear power; no more than a handful of those with reservations about atomic plants seemed concerned enough to try to do something about them. But the anti-nuclear forces seem to be gathering momentum. Last month a trio of middle-level engineers at GE's nuclear-energy division in San Jose, Calif, suddenly resigned their jobs in protest. The trio, Dale Bridenbaugh, 44, Gregory Minor, 38, and Richard Hubbard, 38, announced that they would instead work full time for Project Survival, the organization coordinating the anti-nuclear referendum drive in California. Another engineer, Robert Pollard, 36, quit his job with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission in protest over conditions at Consolidated Edison's Indian Point nuclear power plants in Buchanan, N. Y.