Despite growing public worry over the safety and long-term
consequences of nuclear power, the United States is set to
resume construction of reactors after more than three decades of
a building freeze that followed the incident at Three Mile
Island in March of 1979. The Three Mile Island accident involved
a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the nuclear generating station in
Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Nearly 40,000 gallons of
radioactive material was released into the nearby Susquehanna
River, resulting in a nearly $1 billion cleanup effort. Though
the incident failed to derail the nuclear power industry in the
United States, a moratorium was issued on construction of new
nuclear facilities. The four reactors currently slated for
building – two in Georgia and two in South Carolina – will be
the first since the accident. The AP1000 1,100 megawatt reactors
are expected to be operational by 2016, using turbine equipment
provided by the Toshiba Corporation. When completed, the
reactors will bring the United States’ to