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_ 1955: A U.S. government reactor makes Arco, Idaho, the world's first town electrified by nuclear power. _ 1957: The U.S.' first commercial nuclear power plant becomes operational in Shippingport, Pa. (Nuclear reactors were already in service in the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom). It was retired in 1982. _ March 29, 1979: Three Mile Island Unit 2 in Middletown, Pa., melts down. No one was killed or seriously injured that day, but the public relations disaster sets back the industry for decades. _ April 26, 1986: Chernobyl nuclear power plant explodes in Soviet Ukraine, killing thousands. A radioactive cloud floats over much of Europe and large areas of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are contaminated. _ 1996: The U.S.' last new reactor comes online at Watts Bar nuclear power plant near Spring City, Tenn. It took 22 years to finish Unit 1 and Unit 2 remains unfinished, becoming a poster child of the industry's inefficiency. _ 2001: Worries about terrorist plots against nuclear power plants prompts new security measures. Governors send National Guard troops to watch over plants as public confidence about the safety of the installations drops. _ 2002: Employees discover an acid leak after it nearly ate through a reactor vessel cap at the Davis-Besse plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio. Owner FirstEnergy Corp. pays a record $28 million fine and juries convict two plant employees of hiding the corrosion. _ 2007: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission receives first full power plant application in 28 years. NRG Energy Inc.'s proposal for two reactors near Bay City, Texas, is one of 26 licenses pending at the agency. _ February 2009: President Barack Obama calls for a cap on greenhouse gas emissions. The proposal would almost certainly raise the cost to operate coal- and gas-fired plants and is seen as a boost for nuclear energy.

A new "pro-renewable energy" organization, which was founded just last week, paid for full-page ads that ran in newspapers across the state blasting Entergy's claims that Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is safe, clean and reliable. Wednesday's ads were sponsored by the Clean Green Vermont Alliance, which was co-founded by David Blittersdorf, a former president of the American Wind Energy Association and co-owner with his wife Jan of NRG Systems. Other co-founders of the Clean Green Vermont Alliance include Pamela Baker of Marketing Partners and Andy Perchlik, executive director of Renewable Energy Vermont.

CPS Energy's longest-serving board trustee, Steve Hennigan, hasn't actually given me a copy of his nine-page "not so far-fetched theory document," but we spoke at length Friday night and Saturday afternoon about what's in it as he fights to keep his board seat and remain a major player at the municipal utility. "I'm not a conspiracy theorist," said Hennigan, a credit union executive by day and an unmistakably nice man. Conspiracy theory, nevertheless, is making the rounds these days in one of those "truth stranger than fiction" scenarios as business and civic leaders ask what went wrong with a multibillion-dollar plan to expand the South Texas Project nuclear facility, the source of 30 percent of the city's current energy usage.

CPS Energy's longest-serving board trustee, Steve Hennigan, hasn't actually given me a copy of his nine-page "not so far-fetched theory document," but we spoke at length Friday night and Saturday afternoon about what's in it as he fights to keep his board seat and remain a major player at the municipal utility. "I'm not a conspiracy theorist," said Hennigan, a credit union executive by day and an unmistakably nice man. Conspiracy theory, nevertheless, is making the rounds these days in one of those "truth stranger than fiction" scenarios as business and civic leaders ask what went wrong with a multibillion-dollar plan to expand the South Texas Project nuclear facility, the source of 30 percent of the city's current energy usage.

"CPS Energy ended a two-month legal battle with its corporate partner in the proposed South Texas Project nuclear expansion with a settlement Wednesday that allows the utility to immediately stop making payments on the project while retaining a small share. The partner, Nuclear Innovation North America, also agreed to pay CPS $80 million and contribute $10 million in assistance for low-income local residents to pay power bills. The deal, which CPS Energy said is worth $1 billion total, means the utility will retain 7.625 percent of the project to build two more reactors near Bay City."