The impact of nuclear power, supersonic flight and elevators has been substantially reduced by regulations or misplaced fears despite working well technically.

A three-part factual claim (nuclear power, supersonic flight, elevators), judged as of 2015. For each technology, check whether historical or policy sources support that it worked technically and that its impact was substantially reduced by regulation or misplaced fears (e.g. nuclear licensing costs and public fear; the overland supersonic flight ban; early public fear of elevators or rules requiring elevator operators). True: all three are well supported. Mostly true: all three are broadly supported but one is weak or contested (e.g. the elevator case was a temporary delay rather than a substantial reduction). Mixed: about half are supported. Mostly false: only one holds, or the main reduction in impact for most of them is shown to come from economics or technical factors rather than regulation or fear. False: none of the three is supported.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 NASA’s Quesst: Reassessing a 50-Year Supersonic Speed Limit - NASA NASA · 27 April 2023

   “Officially put into effect on April 27, 1973, the ban’s introduction was strongly influenced by public opinion surveys in cities where supersonic military jets were flown overhead, and many folks said they didn’t like what they heard or the way their windows rattled because of the sonic booms.”

2. E2 NASA’s Quesst: Reassessing a 50-Year Supersonic Speed Limit - NASA NASA · 27 April 2023

   “It was a fair assessment at the time because the technology required to make that happen didn’t exist yet.”

3. E3 NASA’s Quesst: Reassessing a 50-Year Supersonic Speed Limit - NASA NASA · 27 April 2023

   “There were many reasons for its demise, including a deadly crash in 2000, but economic and environmental issues top the list. Restrictions against flying faster than sound over land due to the ban in the U.S. and elsewhere greatly limited its revenue-generating options.”

4. E4 Going Up Alone: Automation, Trust, and the Disappearance of the Elevator Operator APEP Autonomous Research (Autonomous Policy Evaluation Project; SocialCatalystLab) · 28 February 2026

   “The barrier was not cost. It was trust. Riders refused to enter an elevator without a human operator.”

5. E5 Going Up Alone: Automation, Trust, and the Disappearance of the Elevator Operator APEP Autonomous Research (@SocialCatalystLab) · 28 February 2026

   “The elevator case challenges the frictionless view: factor prices favored automation decades before adoption”

6. E6 Going Up Alone: Automation, Trust, and the Disappearance of the Elevator Operator APEP Autonomous Research (@SocialCatalystLab) · 28 February 2026

   “The gap can only be explained by behavioral frictions—what David (1990) called”

7. E7 Going Up Alone: Automation, Trust, and the Disappearance of the Elevator Operator APEP Autonomous Research (@SocialCatalystLab) · 28 February 2026

   “Why did elevator automation—technically feasible from 1900—take over forty years to”

8. E8 Elevator - Wikipedia Wikipedia

   “They are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems such as a hoist, although some pump hydraulic fluid to raise a cylindrical piston like a jack.”

9. E9 Effects of environmental protection and public safety regulatory practices upon light water reactor economics MIT Energy Laboratory (MIT-EL 78-009) · June 1978

   “Redesigns and field reworks imposed by the NRC are responsible for an average of 50% of construction delays (15 months);”

10. E10 Nuclear fear: The irrational obstacle to real climate action Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (author: Kerry Emanuel) · 15 November 2021

    “Fear was one of several factors that crippled nuclear power in the West.”

11. E11 FAA DOT say SSTs are coming based on new science, BUT...??? JDA Solutions (blog) · 6 July 2026

    “It would repeal the general prohibition on civil supersonic flight in the US contained in the current regulations, first enacted in 1973 to protect the public from sonic booms.”

12. E12 Automating Elevators APEP Autonomous Research (Autonomous Policy Evaluation Project, Social Catalyst Lab) · 1 March 2026

    “The technology worked: self-service elevators were safe, reliable, and cheaper to operate. Yet building owners, tenants, and municipalities resisted the transition for decades.”

For nuclear power, the evidence supports the claim: NRC-imposed redesigns and reworks account for about half of construction delays (E9), and fear is described as one of several factors that crippled nuclear power in the West (E10). For supersonic flight, the 1973 overland ban was strongly influenced by public reaction to sonic booms (E1, E11) and greatly limited Concorde's revenue options (E3), though NASA says economic and environmental issues top the list of reasons for its demise (E3). For elevators, the evidence says the technology worked but riders' lack of trust and resistance delayed automation for decades (E4, E7, E12); the same research attributes the gap to behavioural frictions, and says factor prices favoured automation decades before adoption (E5, E6). All three cases are broadly supported, but the elevator case is weaker and contested, which fits "mostly true" under the criteria.