1. Erice International Seminars 40th Session number 7 “Nuclear Power Present and Future” August 21 st 2008 Richard Wilson Harvard University Introductory remarks

2. In 1972 actual (busbar) nuclear costs in USA including paying off the mortgage were 0.55 cents/kwh (Connectict Yankee) Less costly than electricity from coal. Industry made future estimates at 1 cent/kwh Widespread enthusiasm for nuclear powered electricity followed by France and other countries. Dow Chemical started a plant to produce process heat as well.

3. Industry leaders talked about a nuclear electric economy (Philip N. Ross paper at back) including: plugin hybrid cars electrically operated heat pumps Suggested that 90% of US energy use could be nuclear electric That possibility remains if we want it

4. The USA had built an infrastructure Nuclear engineering Departments Training in the Nuclear Navy Many manufacturers: Wesinghouse, GE, Babcock and Wilcox, Combustion Engineering, General Atomic But starting about 1980 US canceled nuclear plants, and dismantled the infrastructure. Coal plants which fit into a system in a similar way are still being built

5. If the 1975 momentum had been maintained we would have done 5 times as much as the Kyoto agreement in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. One major reason for the change was public opposition which led to strong regulation e.g Point Beach, Wisconsin staff went from 208 (including 3 security personnel) in 1972 to over 800 in 1982

6. Inherently governments must be more involved with nuclear power (waste, etc) than for most other energy technlogies and this leaves scope for public opposition. The issues of this session are: Are the reasons for the turning away from nuclear understood? Have the reasons been addressed? Can we move forward again? Will we move forward again?