Nuclear Implosions: The Rise and Fall of the Washington Public Power Supply System

by Daniel Pope

• ISBN13: 9780521402538
• ISBN10: 0521402530
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-02-04
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Background to Fiasco	p. 1
WPPSS Steps Forward	p. 35
The Second Wave - Projects 4 and 5	p. 76
The Construction Morass	p. 111
Collapse	p. 145
Endgame	p. 188
Running Toward an Uncertain Future	p. 250
Index	p. 273
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