On May 26, 1958, the Shippingport, Pennsylvania, nuclear power station ushered in the age of the peaceful atom when it became the first nuclear power plant to go on-line. Throughout its more than three decades of operation, Shippingport encountered many of the crucial problems and issues that still confront nuclear power: policy formation, the role of government in technological innovation, technological management, environmental issues, breeder reactors, and the decommissioning of a nuclear plant. In an objective and nonprejudiced way, this book provides an accurate account of the...