As I understand it, Banqiao Dam was primarily intended as a flood defence scheme. Even if China had abandoned hydroelectric power they'd still have had to const

As I understand it, Banqiao Dam was primarily intended as a flood defence scheme. Even if China had abandoned hydroelectric power they'd still have had to construct the dam for that reason. If they'd used nuclear power (which I don't think existed back then) instead, you'd still have had all the deaths from the dam failure plus however many people they managed to kill from applying the same inadequate construction standards and mismanagement to nuclear power plants.