In the world of nuclear energy, the fast-breeder reactor is considered the power source of the future. Not only do breeders have longer lasting fuel elements than standard, water-moderated reactors, but they also produce more nuclear fuel than they consume. When enough breeders have been built, utility executives believe, the cost of nuclear fuel can be drastically reduced. Thus there was great dismay in October 1966, when Michigan's $85 million Enrico Fermi atomic power plant, the first commercial power-producing fast-breeder reactor in the U.S., had to be shut down because of...
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