The adoption of advanced technology by a large electric utility must be preceded by a lengthy assessment process involving cost, performance, reliability, technology availability, environmental impact, legal, institutional, and other factors. Over the past 25 years, the most important technological development to take place in the electric utility business has been that of nuclear power generation. This technology, though proven technically, has encountered significant problems. The time to site and construct a nuclear plant has grown because of environmental and regulatory restrictions. The absence of a national policy with respect to nuclear waste disposal and fuel recycling has created what appears to utility planners to be a very unfavorable political environment. For these and other reasons, the capital cost of nuclear plants has been steadily increasing and utility managements have begun to look to other fuel technologies such as coal.
