By Associated Press
Florence, AL – Utilities in the 1970s rushed to build nuclear-powered generating plants, creating tens of thousands of jobs for construction workers, engineers and skilled laborers. After a nuclear accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island generating plant in 1979, most utilities scaled back plans for new reactors. Instead of nuclear energy, utilities returned to using coal and natural gas to power new generating plants. In 1996, when the Tennessee Valley Authority began producing electricity at its Watts Bar nuclear plant near Knoxville, it marked the end of the nuke plant building boom. No new nuclear plants have been completed in the United States since. A decade later, a new rush to build nuclear-powered generating plants looms on the horizon. Many of the new nuclear plants will be built in the Southeast Nuclear Regulatory Commission director Dale Klein predicts the N-R-C will experience a groundswell of applications for licenses to construct new nuclear plants as the nation's utilities scramble to produce enough electricity to meet the needs of the its ever-growing population.