This day in history: Shippingport Atomic Power Station goes online

[John Jacobus <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>]

I thought this would be of interest.  The original is

at

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1218.html#article





BIG ATOMIC PLANT NEAR PITTSBURGH SUPPLYING POWER

-------------------------



Developers Hope Project, First of Kind in U. S., Can

Cut High Initial Cost 

-------------------------



By JOHN W. FINNEY 

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES 



Washington, Dec. 18--The country's first large-scale

civilian atomic power plant started generating

electricity for commercial use today.



This milestone of the atomic age was reached early

this morning when the atomic power plant at

Shippingport, Pa., began producing electricity for

consumers in the Pittsburgh area. 



At 12:39 A. M., the Atomic Energy Commission

announced, the atomic-powered generator of the

Shippingport plant was tied in with the electrical

system of the Duquesne Light Company. 



Gradually the fission heat from the large atomic

reactor was increased. By 3 A. M. the plant was

producing more than the 8,000 kilowatts it consumes

and was sending electricity through the Duquesne Light

transmission lines.



Fission Rate Increased



Throughout the day the power was built up as engineers

regulated the control rods that accelerate or

decelerate the atomic fission in the reactor core. At

7 A. M. the plant was producing 12,100 kilowatts of

electricity. The power output was scheduled to go to

more than 20,000 kilowatts tonight. 



Within a few days the plant is expected to reach its

designed initial capacity of 60,000 kilowatts--enough

electricity to supply the needs of 120,000 persons.



As a developmental project, the Shippingport plant

will produce high-cost power that will be far from

competitive with conventional power. Its developers

hope it will lead the way, however, to future

atomic-power plants that will produce economical

electricity. 



The Shippingport plant cost $72,500,000, including the

first loading of atomic fuel. With research and

development expenses, the cost rises to about

$120,000,000.



Subsidized by Government 



Most of the expense was met by the Federal Government.

Duquesne Light supplied $5,000,000 toward the cost of

the reactor and furnished the site and generating

equipment at an estimated cost of $15,000,000.

Westinghouse contributed its profit, which would have

amounted to about $500,000.



Duquesne Light will operate the plant for the

Government and buy the electricity at a conventional

power cost of about eight mills per kilowatt-hour. The

actual cost of the atomic power is expected to run

from 55 to 60 mills.



The plant, on the Ohio River twenty-five miles

northwest of Pittsburgh, was built in thirty-two

months.



Electricity has been produced before from atomic

reactors, but never before in such quantity from a

strictly civilian plant.



The Commission asserted in its announcement that the

Shippingport plant is "the world's first full-scale

atomic electric power plant devoted exclusively to

peacetime uses." 



Since October, 1956, the British atomic-power plant at

Calder Hall has been generating up to 100,000

kilowatts of electricity, but this plant was designed

to produce plutonium for weapons as well as

electricity.



The Soviet Union has announced ambitious plans for

atomic power but has disclosed only the operation of a

5,000-kilowatt plant.



The significance of the shipping-port event was muted

in the commission announcement. In the opinion of some

project officials, who understandably were

enthusiastic, the commission and the Administration

had missed the opportunity to score an international

psychological triumph to offset the Soviet satellite

achievement.



The commission announcement described the first

generation of commercial power at Shippingport as a

test. Similarly, in a message from Paris, where he is

attending the Atlantic pact meeting, Lewis L. Strauss,

chairman of the commission, said he was "gratified to

learn" of the plant's "initial power test."



In explaining the low-keyed approach to the event,

Administration officials said that it was viewed only

as a test of the reactor and therefore did not lend

itself to a full-scale publicity build-up.



In its international broadcasts, however, the Voice of

America was giving prominence to the event second only

to that given to the North Atlantic Council meeting. 



Administration's Program



In some respects the commission announcement seemed to

be aimed at bolstering the Administration's domestic

power program rather than highlighting the historical

significance. 



The announcement, for instance, was issued jointly

with the Duquesne Light Company, which will operate

the Government-owned plant for the commission. The

keystone of the Administration's atomic-power

development program is "partnership" with private

industry in construction of atomic plants.



In his message, Mr. Strauss also observed that the

Shippingport unit brings to "a total of five the

number of plants delivering civilian atomic power in

the United States this year." The four other plants

mentioned by Mr. Strauss are experimental facilities

and do not compare in size with Shippingport. 



The fact that this nation's first large-scale atomic

power plant was built largely at Government expense

and direction is expected to supply new ammunition to

Democrats in Congress who have been urging a

Government program for building atomic plants. 



Meet to Map Program



The announcement came as four members of the

Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy were

meeting with the Atomic Energy Commission to try to

draft a common program to accelerate the atomic power

development program. 



Democrats lost no time in pointing out that the

Shippingport plant had been constructed under the

personal direction of Rear Admiral Hyman G. Rickover,

rather than as part of the commissions's "partnership"

program. Democratic Representatives Clarence Cannon of

Missouri and Chet Holifield of California sent

telegrams to Admiral Rickover complimenting him on his

accomplishment.



Admiral Rickover, chief of the Naval Reactors Branch

of the commission, collaborated with the Bettis

Laboratory of Westinghouse Electric Corporation in

designing and constructing the reactor. The plant is

modeled on the pressurized water type reactor used to

power the first atomic submarine, the Nautilus.



Within the fifty-eight-ton core of the reactor are

fourteen tons of natural uranium surrounding 165

pounds of highly enriched uranium. The fission

reaction of the uranium heats water, kept under high

pressure to prevent it from boiling. The pressurized

water is circulated through a heat exchanger, thereby

producing steam in a secondary water system to turn

the turbine and electrical generator.



================================

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-------------------------------------------------------Copyright

2002 The New York Times Company



 





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"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not themselves, and under a just God cannot long retain it."

Abraham Lincoln



-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com



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