11. Rickover became involved with nuclear power for commercial use while still building Nautilus
The Navy’s experiment with nuclear-powered ships was still under development when the Duquesne Light Company authorized the use of a similar reactor to provide power at Shippingport. The new power plant was built by the company to house a pressurized water reactor (PWR) on a site west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Rickover oversaw the development and construction of the Shippingport Power Station, while Westinghouse built the reactor. He was assigned responsibility for the project because the Atomic Energy Commission recognized the organization he had built within the Navy and through contractors as being “the best choice…to demonstrate the production of electricity”. Rickover’s personal involvement began in 1954, the same year Nautilus was launched into the Thames River at Groton, Connecticut. The twin programs demonstrate Rickover’s seemingly inexhaustible passion for work.
The Shippingport Power Station became operational in December, 1957. It was the first nuclear reactor used to generate electricity for peaceful purposes anywhere in the world. The reactor remained operational until 1982, except for routine shutdowns to replace its core. After it was shut down, the Shippingport reactor became one of the first to be dismantled and transported to a facility for ultimate disposal. The site upon which the facility stood was cleaned up and released as unrestricted land in the late 1980s. Rickover’s involvement with the Shippingport Nuclear Power Station made him, in addition to being the “father” of the nuclear Navy, one of the fathers of commercial use of nuclear power stations for the creation of electricity throughout the world.