Roosevelt Island Underground Nuclear Reactor Was Proposed By Con Ed - In Late 1960's

This earlier post described a:

... proposed Con Ed Nuclear Power plant in Long Island City across the East River from Roosevelt Island...

Well, it gets worse. The NY Times City Room Blog reports today:

... Con Ed was not done trying to build a nuclear plant in the city, though. In 1968, it floated a plan to build an underground reactor — “because it would provide the nth degree of safety” — beneath an abandoned hospital site at the south end of Welfare Island, now Roosevelt Island, a few hundred feet from the Ravenswood plants and that much closer to the East Side of Manhattan. It went nowhere....

Sounds like a crazy idea, doesn't it. Well, the idea is coming back, but not thankfully for Roosevelt Island. According to New Scientist:

... Nuclear power is going to be a tough sell going forward given the ongoing radiation leaking from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power plant, but what if future reactors were buried underground?

It may sound like a crazy idea, but Singapore, a tiny island country whose population would have no place to go in the event of a wide-scale evacuation, is giving buried nukes a closer look.

The thinking is that you could bury a small reactor in a shallow layer of bedrock, perhaps 30-50 meters underground. Then, if things at the plant go south for any reason, the granite will provide natural containment; simply cement in any access tunnels going down to the facility and walk away....

 Image of underground mini nuclear reactor from New Scientist