The nuclear comeback: a once-mothballed plant in southern Indiana will have new life. Is Marble Hill back?

• Author: Hromadka, Erik
• Position: ENERGY

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IT HAS BEEN A LONG time since nuclear power got much attention in Indiana's business community. The last time that happened, oil prices were rising dramatically and people were upset about the impact of carbon-based fossil fuels on the environment.

That was in the 1970s, but now a similar set of circumstances has renewed interest in nuclear power in the United States. With oil prices hovering around $80 per barrel and carbon emissions the subject of climate concerns, many believe the answer to the country's future energy demands will be met by nuclear power.

And like the first time the state experimented with nuclear power, a large plant in southern Indiana has plans to play a significant role in the new wave of energy. However, that role will likely be in the production of advanced manufacturing components for nuclear power equipment rather than through the generation of electricity.

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That may be great news for the state, because although Indiana has been successful in manufacturing nuclear components, the state's first attempt at building a nuclear power plant didn't go so well.

The Marble Hill saga.

In the 1970s, the Marble Hill project in southern Indiana was proposed as a major infrastructure investment that could provide huge amounts of cheap, clean electricity for the region. Construction began at a site on the Ohio River between Madison and Jeffersonville as a project of Public Service Indiana, which later became part of Cinergy. However, the plant was never completed.

Hampered by cost over-runs and construction delays, the project was dealt a death blow when the Three Mile Island crisis shook the entire nuclear industry in 1979. An overheating reactor in Pennsylvania raised fears that a meltdown could occur and lead to mass evacuations. Although the situation was ultimately contained, the threat of radiation leaking from a nuclear facility made the plant and its giant cooling towers a rallying point for anti-nuclear protestors. It also marked the end of any new nuclear power plant construction in the United States.

While some of the more than 100 plants under design or construction at the time were completed, Indiana's Marble Hill plant was not among them. Progress on the facility slowed amid concerns about flaws in its concrete structures and the project was officially abandoned in 1984. Although more than $2 billion had been invested, Marble Hill never generated any power. More than 20...