Nuclear Power Timeline

• James Chadwick (United Kingdom) discovered the neutron as well as studying deuterium which is know as heavy hydrogen and used in nuclear reactors.
• Crockcroft and Walton (United Kingdom) split the atom with protons accelerated with their “linear accelerator”.
• Werner Heisenberg (Germany) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the creation of quantum mechanics.

• German troops occupied Norway, and seized the world's only heavy-water production plant at Vemork.
• Philip Abelson and Edwin McMillan (U.S.) demonstrated that neutrons captured by uranium 238 lead to the creation of elements 93 and 94, neptunium and plutonium.
  
• A new element (atomic number 94), was found and named plutonium. American physicists confirmed that plutonium was fissionable, thus usable for a bomb.

• The Manhattan Project was formed in the United States to secretly build the atomic bomb for use in World War II.
• First controlled nuclear chain reaction led by Enrico Fermi (U.S. immigrant from Italy) and other scientists at the University of Chicago.

• First test of a nuclear weapon, code-named “Trinity”, occurred at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
• U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, and three days later dropped another one on Nagasaki, Japan. Japan surrendered less than two weeks later, ending World War II.

• The Atomic Energy Act (AEA) of 1946 was passed, establishing the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to control nuclear energy development and explore peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
• First demonstrations against nuclear testing were held in Times Square, New York.
• Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy established to oversee all civilian and military nuclear affairs.
• The Soviet Union achieved its first nuclear chain reaction.

• President Truman announced the decision to proceed with development of the hydrogen bomb.
• Klaus Fuchs(U.S. immigrant from Germany) confessed to giving atomic secrets to the Soviets while working on the Manhattan Project.

• The first nuclear powered submarine, U.S.S. Nautilus, was launched.
• Eisenhower's "Atoms-for-Peace" Program proposed an international agency to develop peaceful nuclear technologies.
• The first Boiling Reactor Experiment reactor was built in Idaho.  It demonstrated that steam bubbles in the reactor core did not cause an instability problem.  It was instead a rapid reliable and effective mechanism for limiting power.  This could protect a reactor against “runaway” events.

The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 was passed. It was the first major amendment of the original Energy Act,which gave the civilian nuclear energy program further access to nuclear technology.

• The Atomic Energy Commission announced the beginning of a cooperative program between government and industry to develop nuclear power plants.
• Arco, Idaho (population 1,000) became the first U.S. town powered by nuclear energy. The power was provided by an experimental reactor, BORAX III, at the Idaho National Energy Laboratory.
• The United Kingdom announced the decision to develop thermonuclear weapons.
• The United Nations sponsored the first international conference on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, which was held in Geneva, Switzerland.

• First power generated from a commercial nuclear plant at Santa Susana, California.
• Price-Anderson Act enacted. This legislation was designed to limit the financial risk of nuclear plant owners in the event of an accident.
• First full-scale nuclear power plant (Shippingport, Pennsylvania) began service.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was formed with 18 member countries to promote peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
• The Soviet Union launched the first nuclear powered surface ship, the Lenin.

• President Eisenhower signed amendments to the 1954 U.S. Atomic Energy Act which led to a bilateral agreement between the U.K. and the U.S. on nuclear weapon design information.
• From November 1958 to September 1961 – The U.S., U.K., and U.S.S.R. observed an informal moratorium on nuclear tests.

The U.S. deployed the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the
Atlas D.

• The Atomic Energy Commission published its 10-year plan for nuclear energy.
• Small nuclear-power generators were first used in remote areas to power weather stations and to light buoys for sea navigation.

• President Lyndon Johnson signed the Private Ownership of Special Nuclear Materials Act, which allowed the nuclear energy industry to own the fuel for its units. After June 30, 1973, private ownership of the uranium fuel became mandatory.
• The U.S. Navy sent three nuclear-powered surface ships (Enterprise, Long Beach and Bainbridge) on an around-the-world cruise to show their ability to operate away from land bases.
• The Atomic Energy Commission issued a construction permit for Oyster Creek nuclear power plant.

• The first nuclear reactor, a 500-Watt system, operated in space. It operated for 43 days and remains in orbit.
• The Atomic Energy Commission gave the Liquid Metal Fast Breeder reactor highest priority and decided to build the Fast Flux Test Facility.
• First major electrical blackout occurred in the northeastern United States.

• First Earth Day celebrated.
• Electricity "brownouts" hit the Northeast during a heat wave. A "brownout" is a reduction or cutback in electric power, especially as a result of a shortage, mechanical failure, or overuse by consumers.

• President Nixon proposed replacing the Atomic Energy Commission with the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• The Arab Oil Embargo- several Arab nations in Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) nations embargoed, or stopped selling, oil to the United States and Holland to protest their support of Israel in the Arab-Israeli “Yom Kippur” War. Arab OPEC production was cut by 25 percent, which caused some temporary shortages and helped oil prices to triple. This contributed to increased interest in alternatives to petroleum, including nuclear power
• U.S. utilities ordered 41 nuclear power plants, a one-year record.

• The first 1,000-Megawatt nuclear plant went into service (Commonwealth Edison's Zion 1 plant).
• The Atomic Energy Commission was abolished and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission(NRC) was created to regulate the nuclear industry. The Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy was also abolished.

• President Carter combined the Energy Research and Development Administration with the Federal Energy Administration, creating the Department of Energy.
• The Voyager 2 spacecraft was launched into space. The spacecraft's electricity was generated by the decay of plutonium pellets.

• The accident at the Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania, on March 28, 1979, was the most serious in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history. Equipment malfunctions, design-related problems, and human error led to led to a partial meltdown of the TMI-2 reactor core but only very minute releases of radioactivity. Although no deaths or injuries resulted, the accident brought about sweeping changes in emergency response planning, reactor operator training, human factors engineering, radiation protection, and many other areas of nuclear power plant operations. These changes enhanced the safety of the industry.
• U.S. nuclear energy industry created the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations to address issues of safety and performance.
• President Carter, completing a process begun by President Ford, banned the use of reprocessed uranium in nuclear fuel. The purpose of the ban was to prevent the used fuels from falling into the wrong hands and being used for nuclear weapons.

• The Nuclear Power 2010 program, developed in 2002, was a joint government/industry cost-shared effort to identify sites for new nuclear power plants, develop and bring to market advanced nuclear plant technologies, evaluate the business case for building new nuclear power plants, and demonstrate untested regulatory processes.
• April 30, the oldest nuclear power plant in the world, Obninsk (located in Russia), closed down its sole reactor.
• Nuclear power provided about 16% of the world's electricity.

• January 3rd, Lithuania, the world’s most nuclear-dependent nation, began the complete and final shutdown of one-half of its nuclear capacity. Lithuania's nuclear reactors are being shutdown due to safety concerns. They have the same design as the reactors at Chernobyl, the site of the world's worst nuclear accident.
• The Polish Government decided to build nation’s first nuclear power plant.

• August 8th, President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which included measures to encourage the nuclear industry to build new nuclear power plants. (No construction of a nuclear plant has begun since 1971.)