Nuclear Power
No discussion about innovation and technology during World War 2 would be complete without the most devastating advancement of the war, the atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project was created as part of a race to create a weapon that would be so devastating that it would end the war and get that weapon before the Axis powers did. The success of the Manhattan Project led to two atomic bombs being dropped on Japan and the surrender of the Japanese and the end of the war. While the debate over whether or not the use of atomic weapons was justified during the war there was something good that came out of the development of the atomic bomb – nuclear energy.
In December of 1951, an experimental station called EBR-1 located near Arco, Idaho was able to generate electricity through a nuclear reaction for the first time. Nuclear power was also seen as a way to power subs and a test marine reactor was being developed in 1953 and it was installed on the USS Nautilus in 1955. In 1953, President Eisenhower expressed a desire to find peaceful uses for atomic energy and in 1954 declassified information on U.S. reactor technology. On June 27th, 1954, the USSR created the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant which became the world’s first nuclear power plant to generate electricity for a power grid. The first commercial nuclear power station was at Windscale, England in 1956. The first commercial nuclear generator to become operational was in the U.S. in 1957.
Today nuclear energy is considered to be a clean way to generate electricity. However, there are debates as to its safety for people and the environment, especially after disasters like Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.