News and Discussions > History & Trivia
Reactor containments
BuddyThePug:
The real answer is (at least one of the correct answers) the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Susana_Field_Laboratory
Cool article !
Marlin:
It looks like the term "first" may have to be qualified. The number of plants I worked at when on the road that claimed to be the best in the nation may be a good example.
Here is a link that says Russia produced the first power from a reactor for consumption but since they were communist was it commerce?
http://eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/nuc_reactors/superla.html
Here is link that says the first usable electricity was produced at Idaho's EBR-1 reactor but it just lit four light bulbs.
http://web.em.doe.gov/timeline/dec1951.html
In the sense that Santa Susana was privately owed I guess it was commercial. It sure leaves a lot of room for future trivia. ;)
Rather Hunt Than Tech:
Shippingport did not have a containment in the way that you usually think of a containment. The reactor and steam generators were in steal chambers underground. Dresdin was the first commercial reactor fully funded by the utility. I do consider Shippingport to be the first commercial Nuclear Power Plant. At Shippingport the operating budget for the primary side was paid for by the Navy. The three cores that were run there were experimental designs. The first two being PWR's and the third a LWBR (Light Water Breeder Reactor). It was built and run to the very conservative Navy standards. The NRC had no sayso there. The operating budget for the secondary side / turbine was paid for by Duquesne Light and operated by Duquesne Light employee's. A Navy Officer was there to serve as a NRC resident inspector would serve at other plants. I was there during the last months of commercial operation and until all the fuel had been shipped to the Naval Reactors Expended Core Facility in Idaho.
Fermi2:
Of course the NRC had no say so there, there WAS no NRC at the time. It was the AEC and of course they had a say so there. Rickover was the AEC Representative there. All plants, including military ones were under the regulations of the AEC. If you get a chance read the hearings on military reactors and Shippingport that the Joint Committee Of Atomic Energy, the organization which oversaw the AEC and military reactor development, conducted. Watching Rickover just play these congressmen and senators is FASCINATING.
Rather Hunt Than Tech:
In 1957 the NRC did not exist. In Oct. 82 when the final shutdown at Shippingport occured the NRC did exist. My point was that the NRC never had any oversight there.
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