This is the eighth in a series.

As the summer of 1973 began, Ocean County, N.J. was on the verge of becoming one of the nation’s focal points for the production of electricity using nuclear power. At the time, four floating reactors were in the process of being approved off the beaches of Long Beach Island.

One land-based plant was in operation on the banks of the Oyster Creek in Forked River, and a second, larger, reactor had only to receive the blessing of the Lacey Township Planning Board before ground was to be broken by…