| | 1 | Title: | Reactor core being lowered into pressure vessel | Add | | | Summary: | The reactor core is lowered into the pressure vessel at the Shippingport Atomic Power Station. The Shippingport plant was "the first large-scale central station nuclear power plant in the United States and the first plant of such size in the world operated solely to produce electrical power." Based upon the demonstrated success of Naval Reactors in the development of pressurized water reactor plants, starting with the Mark I/S1W plant, Admiral Hyman Rickover was assigned responsibility for the Shippingport project by the Atomic Energy Commission. Consistent with the practice used for S1W's design and construction, the AEC contracted with Westinghouse Electric for the Shippingport's plant, with Naval Reactors again serving in its oversight role for the design, development, and construction activities at the Shippingport station. | | | | Source: | http://explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=7290 | | | | Reference: | U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Duquesne Light Company, and International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. The Shippingport Pressurized Water Reactor. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co, 1958, pages v-viii. | | | | Date: | 1957 | | | | Subject(s): | Shippingport Atomic Power Station | Nuclear engineering | Naval Reactors | | | | Type: | Image | | | | Format: | JPEG | | | | Similar items: | Find |
| 3 | Title: | Corrosion and wear handbook | Add | | | Chapter title: | Introduction | | | | Summary: | The introduction describes the handbook's purpose: "to accumulate and correlate the pertinent corrosion and wear information" that was the product of the first eight years in developing pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology for naval nuclear propulsion (3). The primary focus of the handbook is corrosion data related to the primary coolant system and steam generators in PWRs. The chapter provides a basic overview of PWR technology and emphasizes the importance of managing corrosion, noting that "only by closely controlling the amount of corrosion products in the primary system can this portion of the nuclear plant be made available for maintenance and repair within a reasonable period of time" after reactor shutdown (5). It includes summary information on stainless steel ("the major material of construction for water-cooled nuclear reactors") and carbon steel (5). | | | | Source: | http://www.osti.gov/bridge | | | | Date: | 1957 | | | | Subject(s): | Nuclear engineering | Naval Reactors | | | | Type: | Text | | | | Format: | PDF | | | | Similar items: | Find |
| 4 | Title: | Naval reactor program and Shippingport project | Add | | | Summary: | This Joint Committee on Atomic Energy hearing record includes lengthy testimony by Admiral Hyman Rickover, Director, Naval Nuclear Propulsion, on a range of issues, including the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the first nuclear power plant that supplied commercial power on a large scale. Rep. Melvin Price, chair of the Subcommittee on Research and Development, opens the hearing by praising Rickover and Naval Reactors: "The [Joint Committee] has been very favorably impressed by the excellent contributions the AEC has made to the civilian power program through the naval reactors program" (1). The hearing includes Rickover's update on naval nuclear propulsion. He describes some of the problems with the Seawolf's sodium-cooled reactor plant, and Naval Reactors' reactor development philosophy (with parallel development of thermal energy/pressurized water and intermediate range/sodium-cooled reactor plants). He also describes some of the other challenges faced by the program at its beginning, such as the need to support the development of a Zirconium industry to support naval nuclear propulsion. Regarding training generally and prototype training (which continues today) specifically, Rickover asserts that in the S1W prototype, "we have no better training facility in the Navy than we have there and it is absolutely essential for the future of nuclear power in the Navy that we train the people there, on a real plant, a live one, because we do not want any accidents to happen" [on nuclear-powered vessels in the fleet] (5). During the hearing, Admiral Rickover provides committee members with information on the PWR (Shippingport's pressurized water reactor plant). He notes that Naval Reactors' approach with the Shippingport plant is similar to that used with earlier submarine reactors and propulsion plants: "The Naval Reactors Branch approves the details of the design. We keep in constant touch with what the reactor designers, the machinery designers, the shipbuilders, and the construction contractors are doing" (26). Also, the document includes the testimony of John Simpson, the manager of the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, Westinghouse; he provides information on Bettis' support for both submarine plants and the Shippingport plant. In summary, the hearing describes how Naval Reactors supported the design and development of the civilian Shippingport plan and the common threads between Shippingport and the successful submarine reactor program. Clearly, a point of interest for committee members is the cost of design, development, and construction for the Shippingport plant, because of their interest in a successful commercial nuclear power industry in the United States. | | | | Source: | http://collections.stanford.edu/atomicenergy/bin/search/advanced/process?clauseMapped%28catKey%29=3163463&sort=title | | | | Date: | 1957 | | | | Subject(s): | Shippingport Atomic Power Station | Rickover, Hyman G. | Naval Reactors | | | | Type: | Text | | | | Format: | PDF | | | | Similar items: | Find |
| 5 | Title: | The USS Seawolf underway | Add | | | Summary: | The USS Seawolf underway in 1977. During her early years of operations in the late 1950s, the Seawolf was powered by an S2G (sodium-cooled, intermediate range) reactor plant designed by General Electric. Because of difficulties in operating this plant and the demonstrated superiority of the pressurized water reactor (PWR) design, the Seawolf's sodium-cooled plant was removed and replaced with an S2W PWR plant at Electric Boat in 1958-60. | | | | Source: | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Seawolf_%28SSN-575%29.jpg | | | | Reference: | Polmar, Norman. Atomic Submarines. London: Van Nostrand, 1963, pages 106-109. | | | | Date: | 18 October 1957 | | | | Subject(s): | S2G | USS Seawolf (SSN-575) | Naval Reactors | | | | Type: | Image | | | | Format: | JPEG | | | | Similar items: | Find |
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