History of Nuclear Power Timeline

American President Dwight Eisenhower gave his 'Atoms for Peace' speech at the United Nations, emphasizing the need to develop 'peaceful' uses of nuclear power quickly.

Image source: Atoms for Peace

The U.S. Army Nuclear Power Program formally commenced in 1954 to develop nuclear reactors for military applications.

The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 allowed rapid declassification of U.S. nuclear technology, paving the way for commercial development of nuclear power.

Image source: Atomic Energy Act of 1954

On 27 June 1954, the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant in the USSR became the world's first nuclear power plant to generate electricity for a power grid, producing around 5 megawatts of electric power.

Image source: Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant

The world's first commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall at Windscale, England, was connected to the national power grid on 27 August 1956.

Image source: Calder Hall nuclear power station

In 1957 EURATOM was launched alongside the European Economic Community (the latter is now the European Union), promoting nuclear cooperation in Europe.

Image source: Euratom

Under the Army Nuclear Power Program's management, the 2 megawatt SM-1 at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, was the first in the United States to supply electricity in an industrial capacity to the commercial grid (VEPCO), in April 1957.

Image source: Natural nuclear fission reactor

The first commercial nuclear station to become operational in the United States was the 60 MW Shippingport Reactor in Pennsylvania, in December 1957.

Image source: Shippingport Atomic Power Station

Derived from the Borax boiling water reactor (BWR) design, this reactor first achieved operational criticality and connection to the grid in 1958.

Image source: Boiling water reactor

The French plan, known as the Messmer plan, aimed for complete independence from oil, with an envisaged construction of 80 reactors by 1985 and 170 by 2000. France would ultimately construct 25 fission-electric stations, installing 56 mostly PWR design reactors over the next 15 years.

Image source: Nuclear power in France

The 1973 oil crisis had a significant effect on countries such as France and Japan, which had relied more heavily on oil for electric generation (39% and 73% respectively), prompting them to invest heavily in nuclear power.

Image source: 1973 oil crisis

Beginning with the proposed Bodega Bay station in California in 1958, early anti-nuclear conflict with local citizens emerged, and by 1964 the concept was ultimately abandoned.

Image source: Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant

For reasons unknown, in 1961 a technician removed a control rod about 22 inches farther than the prescribed 4 inches, causing a fatal accident at the SL-1 reactor.

Image source: SL-1

The Pathfinder Nuclear Station near Sioux Falls, South Dakota, open for about a year, suffered an accident when an operator opened a valve too fast, causing the one-year-old plant to be retired permanently.

Image source: Pathfinder Nuclear Generating Station

Another serious accident happened in 1968, when one of the two liquid-metal-cooled reactors on board the Soviet submarine K-27 underwent a fuel element failure, with the emission of gaseous fission products into the surrounding air.

Image source: Soviet submarine K-27

In 1972 Alvin Weinberg, co-inventor of the light water reactor design, was fired from his job at Oak Ridge National Laboratory by the Nixon administration, 'at least in part' over his raising of concerns about the safety and wisdom of ever larger scaling-up of his design, especially above a power rating of ~500 MWe.

Image source: Alvin M. Weinberg

In the early 1970s, there were large protests about a proposed nuclear power plant in Wyhl, Germany, and the project was cancelled in 1975, marking a milestone in the European anti-nuclear movement.

Image source: Wyhl

A total of 63 nuclear units were canceled in the United States between 1975 and 1980, reflecting rising costs, regulatory delays, and public opposition. More than two-thirds of all nuclear plants ordered after January 1970 were eventually cancelled.

Image source: Nuclear power in the United States

Numerous countries, including Austria (1978), Sweden (1980) and Italy (1987) (influenced by Chernobyl) have voted in referendums to oppose or phase out nuclear power.

Image source: Anti-nuclear movement

According to some commentators, the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island played a major part in the reduction in the number of new plant constructions in many other countries.

Image source: Three Mile Island accident

In May 1979, an estimated 70,000 people, including then governor of California Jerry Brown, attended a march against nuclear power in Washington, D.C., following the Three Mile Island accident.

Image source: Anti-nuclear movement in the United States

In 1982, amongst a backdrop of ongoing protests directed at the construction of the first commercial scale breeder reactor in France, a later member of the Swiss Green Party fired five RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenades at the still under construction containment building of the Superphenix reactor.

Image source: Superphénix

An international organization to promote safety awareness and the professional development of operators in nuclear facilities, the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), was created as a direct outcome of the 1986 Chernobyl accident.

Image source: World Association of Nuclear Operators

The Chernobyl disaster occurred on Saturday 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The initial emergency response, together with later decontamination of the environment, ultimately involved more than 500,000 personnel and cost an estimated 18 billion Soviet rubles—roughly US$68 billion in 2019, adjusted for inflation.

Image source: Chernobyl disaster

Total global installed nuclear capacity initially rose relatively quickly, from less than 1 GW in 1960 to 100 GW in the late 1970s and 300 GW in the late 1980s. Since the late 1980s worldwide capacity has risen much more slowly, reaching 366 GW in 2005.

In 2011 the International Energy Agency halved its prior estimate of new generating capacity to be built by 2035, reflecting the impact of the Fukushima disaster on nuclear outlooks.

Image source: International Energy Agency

Germany approved plans to close all its reactors by 2022, though following the energy crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany later decided to keep reactors running until April 2023.

Image source: Nuclear power in Germany

Following the Tōhoku earthquake on 11 March 2011, one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded, and a subsequent tsunami off the coast of Japan, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant suffered three core meltdowns due to failure of the emergency cooling system for lack of electricity supply.

Image source: Fukushima nuclear accident

Italian nuclear energy plans ended when Italy banned the generation, but not consumption, of nuclear electricity in a June 2011 referendum.

Image source: Nuclear power in Italy

By 2015, the global trend was for new nuclear power stations coming online to be balanced by the number of old plants being retired, and eight new grid connections were completed by China in 2015.

Image source: Nuclear power in China

In August 2015, following 4 years of near zero fission-electricity generation, Japan began restarting its nuclear reactors after safety upgrades were completed, beginning with Sendai Nuclear Power Plant.

Image source: Sendai Nuclear Power Plant

In 2016, the BN-800 sodium-cooled fast reactor in Russia began commercial electricity generation, while plans for a BN-1200 awaited results from MBIR, an under-construction multi-loop Generation IV research facility testing lead, lead-bismuth and gas coolants.

Image source: BN-800 reactor

While South Korea has a large nuclear power industry, the new government in 2017, influenced by a vocal anti-nuclear movement, committed to halting nuclear development after the completion of the facilities presently under construction.

Image source: Nuclear power in South Korea

The bankruptcy of Westinghouse in March 2017 due to US$9 billion of losses from the halting of construction at Virgil C. Summer and Vogtle nuclear plants marked a major setback for the U.S. nuclear industry.

Image source: Westinghouse Electric Company

In 2018 the MIT Energy Initiative study on the future of nuclear energy concluded that, together with strong government support for Generation IV technologies, a worldwide renaissance would require a global standardization of regulations, moving towards serial manufacturing of standardized units akin to aircraft manufacturing.

Image source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In January 2019, China had 45 reactors in operation, 13 under construction, and plans to build 43 more, which would make it the world's largest generator of nuclear electricity. As of 2019, over 60 GW in new nuclear power plants was under construction, mostly in China, Russia, Korea, India and UAE.

Many countries in the world are considering Small Modular Reactors, with one in Russia connected to the grid in 2020. As of 2020, a number of US nuclear power plants were also cleared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for operations up to 80 years.

Image source: Small modular reactor

Following the energy crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany decided to postpone the shutdown of its three remaining nuclear power plants until April 2023.

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the situation changed. With the Versailles declaration agreed in March 2022, EU leaders of the 27 member states agreed to phase out the EU's dependence on Russian fossil fuels as soon as possible.