John Kane, the chief Washington lobbyist for the Nuclear Energy Institute, has been trying to sell Americans on a kinder, gentler nuclear power that is safe, cheap and environmentally sound. Until recently, Americans weren't buying. Now, even he is amazed at the success the industry has had in rebuilding its public image. "The analogy I like to use for what has happened with us is Cinderella," he says. "Poor Cinderella toiled unappreciated and abused for a long time. Finally, somebody took a look at her and she got a chance to go to the dance."

Nuclear energy--poor, abused nuclear energy--is indeed finally at the dance. Nuclear power plants are selling for record prices. The most pro-nuke administration since that of Richard Nixon is in the White House. A recent AP poll found that half of all Americans now say they support nuclear power. And stock in the nation's largest nuclear holding company has doubled in value in the past year and a half.

It all amounts to a remarkable turnaround for an industry once so politically untouchable it spent the greater part of two decades in duck-and-cover mode--pronounced dead not just by environmentalists but also by investors stung by its high costs and risks, and the fear that the government subsidies that have kept it afloat would eventually dry up.

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