In the span of a single week, the nuclear power industry's hoped-for U.S. resurgence took a few steps backward as several projects and existing plants from across the country either were shut down or began to face increased scrutiny from regulators due to ongoing problems and financial issues.
The setbacks raised the specter of a long-term decrease in domestic nuclear power-generation capacity, claimed Peter Bradford, a former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) who is now an energy policy and law professor at the Vermont Law School. If the trend continues, Bradford says, "U.S. nuclear-power output will have reached a peak a few years ago that it will not attain again in our lifetimes."