The Atomic Age did not really start with a bang, and the scientists who discovered that neutrons were matter altering tools that enabled them to release vast quantities of heat energy were not really focused on building destructive weapons. Instead, atomic pioneers like Szilard, Fermi, Noddack, and Mitner were excited to be both unlocking stored…
Atomic America has a thought provoking subtitle – “How a Deadly Explosion and a Feared Admiral Changed the Course of Nuclear History”. The unifying story through the book is one that most nuclear trained people know a little about – the accident at the Army’s SL-1 that took place on January 3, 1961. In Atomic…
Howard Shaffer is a Rickover selected former Navy nuclear officer, he helped to build and operate several plants in the US and Taiwan, and volunteered throughout his career to share nuclear information with anti-nuclear advocates. Howard Shaffer is a retired nuclear engineer who received his initial nuclear training and experience as a member of the…
Ted Rockwell has been there and done that when it comes to nuclear power plant design and construction. He was a key member of the team that built the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the first solely commercial nuclear electric generating station in the world. On December 18, 1957, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station started supplying…
Ray Haroldsen tells the story of how BORAX III became the first US nuclear plant to supply electricity to a town. In the fall of 1954, the US Atomic Energy Commission learned that the Soviet Union was planning to participate for the first time in the annual International Atomic Energy Agency conference on nuclear energy….
Ray Haroldsen, back by popular demand, shares some more stories about his experiences on the technical team of the EBR-1, including some information about the results of the core melt that occurred in Nov 1955. Last week, Ray Haroldsen shared some of his memories as a member of the technical team at the National Reactor…
Bob Bromm is a professional mechanical engineer. He has recently been assigned to a new job with the team that has a contract to provide architect-engineering services for a two reactor ABWR for NRG. As we have discussed on a number of occasions, the renaissance in atomic energy has begun. For show 67, I had…