What Can the History of Nuclear Power Teach Us About Whether Vermont Yankee Should Operate After 2012?
by Eesha Williams Eesha Williams lives in Dummerston. A revised edition of his book Grassroots Journalism was recently published. Two lessons can be taken from the history of the nuclear power industry. First, the 103 reactors now operating at 65 locations around the United States should be closed immediately. Second, ordinary people, acting together, can close existing nuclear power plants, and stop new ones from being built. The nuclear power industry was created by the federal government in the mid-1950s. The technology required to use nuclear power to generate electricity was invented by the same government scientists who had invented the first nuclear bombs, which killed more than 100,000 people in World War II. (Many of these scientists worked for universities and private companies like Monsanto and Union Carbide, which did the work under contract with the government.) (1) In 1946, Congress passed the Atomic Energy Act, which created the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The AEC ov
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