NUCLEAR POWER: Fresh Start, Or Last Gasp?

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New Hampshire's Seabrook plant has produced some of the nuclear power industry's fiercest battles, leading to more than 2,500 arrests of protesters since the mid-1970s and to repeated announcements of its demise. Yet like the phoenix, the nuclear plant has a way of rising again. Last week the Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted 3 to 0 to give the station a license to operate at full power. Plant officials praised the decision as a "triumph of reason." They predicted that the reactor, now eleven years overdue for its start-up and carrying a price tag of $6.4 billion, more than six times its original budget, would begin sending electricity across New England by summer.

Even so, opponents are steadfast. James Shannon, the attorney general of Massachusetts, plans to appeal the decision in federal court. Nuclear power opponents contend that the decision represents no rebirth for the industry, since the plant's cost overruns have prompted hefty rate increases for consumers in New England.