 In 1975, the company had been selected to construct the Clinch River Breeder Reactor.However, increasing public opposition to the construction of nuclear plants, lengthy delays brought by challenges before public utility commissions, and corresponding increases in plant construction costs, capped by the incident at Three Mile Island in 1979, brought about a moratorium on the construction of large nuclear plants and the cancellation of many existing orders.The company began to respond to these challenges during the remainder of the 1970s and into the early 1980s.