National Geographic: Back in the early 1970s, U.S. utility companies, frustrated with growing public unease about nuclear power that made it difficult for them to find sites for new plants, came up with a wild brainstorm. Why not put full-sized nuclear power plants on barges and position them offshore, where they wouldn't be in anyone's backyard, unless you counted fish?
The scheme never took off, according to a recent article by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission historian Thomas Wellock. Financing proved to be as...