James Francis

In 1957, Ford revealed a concept car called the Nucleon. It was only a scale model, but predicted an ambitious future when nuclear reactors would be so small they could power a car. Nuclear energy fascinated the world for a while, producing futuristic ideas such as nuclear-powered aircraft, nuclear trains, and The Jetsons cartoon.

But the euphoria didn't last. Cheaper combustion fuel, especially diesel, made nuclear less cost-effective. Nuclear anxiety already existed, captured in sci-fi movies and the Cold War. The world cooled on nuclear energy. By the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the number of new nuclear sites had fallen to almost nothing.