In the late forties and early fifties, nuclear power was seen as a great gift to all humanity. “Electric power will be free!”, claimed many scientists and engineers.
Small nuclear reactors were proposed that would provide a town, even a home, with its own nuclear power plant. Nuclear generators smaller than suitcases would set everyone free from meters and power grids.
The possibilities were endless. Electric cars, with virtually free electricity obtained by plugging in at night, would provide free energy for many with short commutes. Greenhouses would provide strawberries and fresh tomatoes all winter. A “new Eden” would be brought forth on earth, with virtually free power to all.
To keep that from happening, an Atomic Energy Commission with regulatory powers was put into effect. The installation of small, municipal power plants never took place.
Instead, the dangers of nuclear power took center stage. Government hirelings in publishing, broadcasting, and movies quickly put out the word. “On the Beach” showed atomic power destroying all the people in the world. “The China Meltdown” convinced millions that an uncontrolled reactor “would melt its way down to China”. It was never explained how it would somehow miss the huge, molten core beneath.
The dangers of nuclear energy were magnified. All things nuclear became bogeymen. “The great dangers of nuclear waste disposal!” were endlessly talked about. No one mentioned that all the nuclear waste in the world could be piled 8 feet high on one football field. Nuclear power provides twenty percent of our energy for a penny a kilowatt. Eighty percent comes from coal and oil at six or eight cents a kilowatt. A tiny bit comes from wind, at a dollar a kilowatt.
Few escape the propaganda long enough to realize that a few hundred more nuclear reactors would provide every American with nearly free power, reducing their energy bills from thousands of dollars a year to a couple of hundred.
