ABSTRACT
As the Ford administration’s lame-duck year in offi ce was coming to a close, the magnitude of the fi nancial loss and opportunity cost wreaked on the U.S. nuclear industry started to dawn on the White House at a higher resolution. The sobering news came in April 1976 when the U.S. Embassy in Tehran notifi ed the State Department that due to the United States’ lethargic pace in concluding a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran and the Shah’s dwindling oil revenues, the ambitious 23,000-MW nuclear electricity generation program would be “stretched out over a longer period” than initially conceived.
