AS THE Bush administration pushes plans for a new generation of nuclear plants, America’s existing reactors are being plagued by cracks and corrosion. One plant came close to a catastrophic meltdown before the problem was discovered.
“We’re facing reactors deteriorating, cracking and leaking as they get older,” says David Lochbaum, who was a safety engineer in the US nuclear industry for 17 years but now works for the anti-nuclear Union of Concerned Scientists. “If we are lucky we will avoid a disaster. But don’t count on it.”
The first hint of a problem came from France in 1991, when cracks…
