In a calm, confident white paper, Britain's Ministry of Fuel and Power told last week how it plans to make Britain an atom-powered nation. The changeover will be gradual, but the program is much more ambitious than any officially advanced in the U.S.
The paper points out that Britain is a growing industrial nation that depends for energy almost entirely on coal. But Britain's coal resources are failing and the country has almost no oil. To the Fuel Ministry, nuclear power thus seems a heaven-sent answer. It will cost at first about 7 mills per kilowatt-hour. Even if this cost does...