Nuclear Power Reactor Technology, 1950-1953 (Part 1)
In 1950, there were few nuclear reactors of any sort operating anywhere in the world, even though it had been eight years since the startup of the very first pile. In that intervening time, the Manhattan Project had given way to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and a variety of reactor types were discussed, debated, designed, and scheduled. None of these was what we today would call a true commercial nuclear plant-built for the purpose of selling electricity to customers. Instead, they were test types, prototypes, and experimental or research types. Large reactors were running at Hanford; these did not produce electricity, but rather plutonium for AEC weapons programs. Atomic energy was still considered far too undeveloped for serious consideration as a straight commercial power producer, and private industry was still barred from most all activities in the nuclear industry, embryonic as it was.