Diesel Generator Stress.

On August 12, 1983, the crankshaft of one of the three emergency diesel generators at the yet-unopened Shoreham Nuclear Power Station snapped during testing. Inspections revealed cracks in the crankshafts of the two other diesels as well as other defects. Permission to perform low-power tests had been granted before the failure of the crankshaft, and two more years of subsequent analysis passed before permission was again granted. By the late 1980s, a conflict over the emergency evacuation plan was still delaying an operating license for the plant.

Shoreham's complex history began about 60 miles from New York City on the north shore of Long Island. Operated by the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO), its construction was formally announced in 1965 and, within a year, LILCO had bought a 455-acre site believing the plant would be online by 1973 at a cost of $65 to $75 million.

In 1968, LILCO's decision to increase the size of Shoreham from 540 to 820 megawatts delayed the timetable and significantly increased the costs of the facility. Construction finally began in 1973, and by the late 1970s the plant's cost approached $2 billion due to low worker productivity as well as design changes ordered by federal regulators. The 1978 Three Mile Island incident prompted federal regulators to demand emergency evacuation plans made in cooperation with state and local governments.

In 1992, after years of legal and political wrangling, LILCO sold the facility to New York State, which bought it with the intention of ensuring it never opened. An additional two years and $185 million were required to deactivate the site—the first commercial reactor in the U.S. to be dismantled. By the time it was fully decommissioned in 1994, Shoreham had cost more than $6 billion without having sold a single kilowatt of electric power.