Shippingport Atomic Power Station

The Shippingport Atomic Power Station was the world's first full-size atomic power plant built just for making electricity in peacetime. It was located near the Beaver Valley Nuclear Generating Station on the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States, about 25 miles from Pittsburgh.

The plant began operating in December 1957 and kept running until October 1982. It made its first electricity on December 18, 1957, connecting to the power grid of Duquesne Light Company.

Shippingport used special fuel in its reactors, including fuel from a cancelled nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Over its 25 years, it produced about 7.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity for people to use.

Construction

In 1953, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his Atoms for Peace speech to the United Nations. This speech talked about using nuclear power for peaceful purposes. A plan by Duquesne Light Company was chosen, and work began on the Shippingport Atomic Power Station.

Construction started on September 6, 1954. President Eisenhower started the project by pressing a button from far away. The reactor became active on December 2, 1957, and it produced its first electricity on December 18 of that year. The plant was finished in just 32 months and cost $72.5 million at the time.

Cores

The Shippingport reactor was built to use different parts called cores during its time, and it used three of them.

The first core, put in place in 1957, helped make a lot of electricity—about 1.8 billion kilowatt-hours—before it was retired after seven years.

The second core, starting in 1965, could make more electricity and worked for nine years, producing almost 3.5 billion kilowatt-hours. It stopped in 1974 because of a problem with its turbine.

The third and last core began operating in 1977. It used special materials and showed that it could create more fuel than it used while making over 2.1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.

Decommissioning

On October 1, 1982, the reactor stopped working after 25 years. Taking apart the facility began in September 1985. In December 1988, a very heavy part of the reactor was moved out of the building and prepared for transport to a special place for disposal.

The cleanup of the site cost about $98 million and is often mentioned as a good example of how to safely close down a nuclear reactor. Even though this reactor was smaller than most others, it showed that a site can be cleaned up and used again for other purposes. After Shippingport was closed down, three other large reactors were also fully taken apart and their sites returned to natural conditions.