As I sweltered during the past several days and used air conditioning very sparingly because of the high cost of electricity in New York I reflected on what would have been if the country had taken the nuclear power option seriously. When I started out on Wall Street in the 1970’s I was an electric utility analyst and I quickly learned that the future of electricity production was in nuclear generation. Many utilities were building plants and the cost of electricity produced by the atom was a fraction of the cost of other fuels, and importantly, even then, was the cleanest fuel available. Then came Three Mile Island and its little leak and suddenly the climate changed. Helped by a Jane Fonda propaganda film-The China Syndrome- the public was made to believe that nuclear power was dangerous. Consequently, nuclear power became anathema and with construction costs mounting utilities abandoned the nuclear option. What a pity and what foolishness. The alarmists and left wing loonies won the day and today, and as we hesitate to put on the AC, we can all thank them as we sweat.