The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a rapid growth in the development of nuclear power in the United States.
By 1976, however, many nuclear plant proposals were no longer viable due to a slower rate of growth in electricity demand, significant cost and time overruns, and more complex regulatory requirements.
[5]A cover story in the February 11, 1985, issue of Forbes magazine commented on the overall management of the nuclear power program in the United States: The failure of the U.S. nuclear power program ranks as the largest managerial disaster in business history, a disaster on a monumental scale ... only the blind, or the biased, can now think that the money has been well spent.
It is a defeat for the U.S. consumer and for the competitiveness of U.S. industry, for the utilities that undertook the program and for the private enterprise system that made it possible.
[6]During the 2000s, aging infrastructure, growing power use and fears of global climate change all prompted what was then called the "nuclear renaissance".