Environment: The Great Nuclear Debate

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Even so, atomic power has been considered a bargain because of the plant's low operating costs. "It's like spending more for a car that gets better mileage," explains Jerry Stanbrough, a spokesman for Illinois' big electric utility, Commonwealth Edison. But even these numbers now look shaky. Instead of being available to churn out electricity 80% of the time, as advertised, nukes have been shut down for inspection or repairs on the average of 40% of every year. Like cars that often go back to the shop, they have not delivered their "better mileage."

Beyond that, uranium prices have more than tripled, from $7 per lb. in 1973 to $25 per lb. today; uranium delivered in 1982 might cost about $43. The Federal Energy Administration has launched an investigation into possible causes of the price spiral, which is upsetting the best laid plans of the nuclear industry.

Meantime, inflation has made all electricity, whether generated by nukes or conventional power plants, more expensive — and U.S. consumers are beginning to economize on power. Growth in demand for electricity, which for decades climbed by a steady 7% a year, actually declined by .1% in 1974 and rose by only 2% in the first six months of 1975. Seeing no pressing reason to build the increasingly expensive nukes, utilities have canceled orders for 14 reactors and deferred orders for 96 others. That adds up to a de facto moratorium — almost exactly what the nuclear critics want.

How long this slowdown lasts depends largely on actions taken in Washington, where the Ford Administration strongly favors expansion of our nuclear capacity. The President wants 200 nukes in operation by 1985 as a key part of his program for national self-sufficiency in energy. "It is time to set aside emotion," adds Frank Zarb, chief of the Federal Energy Administration. "We must get on with the job of utilizing this vital, clean and abundant energy source." Without it, he says, the U.S. would be at the mercy of foreign oil producers, a prospect that he fears could be "devastating" to the national economy.

The Administration is already helping by allotting more than half of this year's Energy Research and Development Administration's $2.7 billion budget to nuclear power research. It has also proposed a new Energy Independence Authority, which would channel $100 billion from the capital markets to private companies developing domestic energy resources, including nukes (TIME, Oct. 6). Another Administration bill, now being drafted, would allow utilities for the first time to include the cost of building power plants in their current rates for electricity — in effect charging today's customers for tomorrow's power.