Nuclear Implosions: The Rise and Fall of the Washington Public Power Supply System 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.
• Tells the story of the largest municipal bond default in US history • Emphasizes the complex interrelationships between nuclear weaponry and the peaceful atom in the Cold War era • Balances attention to regional distinctiveness of Pacific Northwest with analysis of national and international ramifications
Contents
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.
Review
'In Nuclear Implosions: The Rise and Fall of the Washington Public Power Supply System, Daniel Pope provides a timely, extensive and retrospective analysis of a previous push for the expansion of civil nuclear power in Washington State in the US.' St Antony's International Review
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