ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS) crisis, discussing important events surrounding the termination of Washington Nuclear Project (WNP 4/5) in January 1982. Veiled charges of WPPSS mismanagement, growing out of schedule slippage and cost overruns on the projects, were later publicized in the report of the Washington State Senate WPPSS Inquiry released in January 1981. The WPPSS crisis revolved around financing problems for WNP 4/5 beginning in mid-1981 with investor skepticism over the soundness of the projects and culminating in termination less than a year later on January 22, 1982. Lacking the necessary technical expertise and preoccupied with mounting environmentalist challenges to the nuclear program, local and state level governmental organizations were ill-equipped to manage WPPSS oversight. The Hydro-Thermal Power Program formed the planning framework for the first phase of the Supply System’s nuclear contruction program.
