Atomic power's critics say nuclear energy is unsafe, too costly, poses almost unfathomable waste disposal problems and increases risk of nuclear war. Accidents at nuclear power plants have reinforced those fears. But atomic power's supporters say it provides clean power and vastly improved medical technology. Hanford is being considered a prime site for production of cancer-fighting isotopes. Both arguments have merit.
Nuclear power provides so much promise, so many problems.
Today, the United States has 104 reactors providing 21 percent of its electricity. These include the Washington Public Power Supply System's Reactor No. 2 at Hanford. But there hasn't been an order for a new nuclear plant in the United States since 1979. And Japan, target of the World War II bombs, has 50 nuclear reactors, which provide 27 percent of its electricity. Nagasaki has no nuclear plants, though Hiroshima does.