• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
  • Podcast
  • Archives

Atomic Insights

Atomic energy technology, politics, and perceptions from a nuclear energy insider who served as a US nuclear submarine engineer officer

First Nuclear Power Barge: Pioneer Barge Built in America

August 1, 1996 By Rod Adams

The Army Nuclear Power program recognized the potential benefits of putting a nuclear power plant on a water mobile platform in the early 1960s.

In January, 1963, construction began on the Sturgis, a World War II vintage Liberty ship hull modified to accept installation of a 10,000 kilowatt pressurized water nuclear steam plant.

Designated the MH-1A, (mobile, high-powered, first of a kind, field installation) the generating plant on board the Sturgis provided power to the Panama Canal Zone grid from 1968 to 1975.

The reactor was the most powerful plant in the Army’s small fleet of reactor plants. Unlike the smaller Army reactors, it had a low enriched uranium core. It was also the last one to be decommissioned, since it provided a vital service that was not easily replaced.

MH-1A’s power replaced the output of a hydroelectric plant, allowing the water from Gatun Lake to be used to fill Canal locks instead of being used to produce electricity.

Stationed in the Canal during the height of the Vietnam War, MH-1A’s contribution to the war effort allowed 2,500 more ships per year to pass through the Canal than would have been possible without her power.

Eventually, even the MH-1A became too expensive to maintain. Like all of the Army’s nuclear power plants, it was a one-of-a-kind machine, with a unique set of spare parts, operating procedures and machinery quirks.

It also required a group of highly trained specialists, all of whom required a regular rotation away from the plant in order to continue their Army careers. The burden of maintaining several unique specialties, ensuring adequate training, and keeping a suitable management structure was difficult for one small generating plant to handle on its own merits.

Like most nuclear plant retirements, the actual situation that resulted in its retirement was the need for a relatively minor system update that might have been completed had it been one of many plants. If MH-1A had been one of many similar plants, the cost of the planning and design work needed for the job could have been amortized over several units.

Instead of being the forerunner for a series of similar machines, MH-1A has been relegated to the status of historical footnote. Its former operators gather along with the former operators of other Army plants, sharing memories and wondering why their pioneering efforts went for naught.

Related Posts

  • No obstacles prevent China from rapidly building floating nuclear power plants

Filed Under: Army Nuclear Program, Atomic Insights August 1996, Technical History Stories

About Rod Adams

Rod Adams is Managing Partner of Nucleation Capital, a venture fund that invests in advanced nuclear, which provides affordable access to this clean energy sector to pronuclear and impact investors. Rod, a former submarine Engineer Officer and founder of Adams Atomic Engines, Inc., which was one of the earliest advanced nuclear ventures, is an atomic energy expert with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. He has engaged in technical, strategic, political, historic and financial analysis of the nuclear industry, its technology, regulation, and policies for several decades through Atomic Insights, both as its primary blogger and as host of The Atomic Show Podcast. Please click here to subscribe to the Atomic Show RSS feed. To join Rod's pronuclear network and receive his occasional newsletter, click here.

Primary Sidebar

Categories

Join Rod’s pronuclear network

Join Rod's pronuclear network by completing this form. Let us know what your specific interests are.

Recent Comments

  • Roger Clifton on Atomic Show #297 – Krusty – The Kilopower reactor that worked
  • Chris Aoki on Atomic Show #296 – Julia Pyke, Director of Finance Sizewell C
  • Michael Scarangella on Catching Oklo — a rising star!
  • Gary Nicholls on Atomic Show #297 – Krusty – The Kilopower reactor that worked
  • Jon Grams on Atomic Show #297 – Krusty – The Kilopower reactor that worked

Follow Atomic Insights

The Atomic Show

Atomic Insights

Recent Posts

Atomic Show #297 – Krusty – The Kilopower reactor that worked

Nuclear energy growth prospects and secure uranium supplies

Nucleation Capital’s Earth Day in Atherton

Atomic Show #296 – Julia Pyke, Director of Finance Sizewell C

Solar’s dirty secrets: How solar power hurts people and the planet

  • Home
  • About Atomic Insights
  • Atomic Show
  • Contact
  • Links

Search Atomic Insights

Archives

Copyright © 2022 · Atomic Insights

Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy