shower- ing the N.R.C. with objections to design details, or to a utility's en-vironmental impact estimates-and then persuading judges that the commission gave them short shrift. Between 1966 and 1970, the typical reactor-construction schedule increased in the United States from just under five years to just over seven years.
contrast, the political parties of France, West Germany, Sweden, and Britain stake out firm positions on atomic issues. Once in power, they claim a popular mandate on nuclear...