The Shippingport Pressurized Water Reactor and Light Water Breeder Reactor

Conference · Mon Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:10191380

Clayton, J C

This report discusses the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, located in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, which was the first large-scale nuclear power plant in the United States and the first plant of such size in the world operated solely to produce electric power. A program was started in 1953 at the Bettis Laboratory to confirm the practical application of nuclear power for large-scale electric power generation. It led to the development of zirconium alloy (Zircaloy) clad fuel element containing bulk actinide oxide ceramics (UO{sub 2}, ThO{sub 2}, ThO{sub 2} -- UO{sub 2}, ZrO{sub 2} -- UO{sub 2}) as nuclear reactor fuels. The program provided much of the technology being used for design and operation of the commercial, central-station nuclear power plants now in use. The Shippingport Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) began initial power operation on December 18, 1957, and was a reliable electric power producer until February 1974. In 1965, subsequent to the successful operation of the Shippingport PWR (UO{sub 2}, ZrO{sub 2} -- UO{sub 2} fuels), the Bettis Laboratory undertook a research and development program to design and build a Light Water Breeder Reactor (LWBR) core for operation in the Shippingport Station. Thorium was the fertile fuel in the LWBR core and was the base oxide for ThO{sub 2} and ThO{sub 2} -- UO{sub 2} fuel pellets. The LWBR core was installed in the pressure vessel of the original Shippingport PWR as its last core before decommissioning. The LWBR core started operation in the Shippingport Station in the autumn of 1977 and finished routine power operation on October 1, 1982. Successful LWBR power operation to over 160% of design lifetime demonstrated the performance capability of the core for both base-load and swing-load operation. Postirradiation examinations confirmed breeding and successful performance of the fuel system.

• Research Organization: Bettis Atomic Power Lab., West Mifflin, PA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC11-93PN38195
• OSTI ID: 10191380
• Report Number(s): WAPD-T--3007; CONF-9310199--1; ON: DE94001903
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210200
210500
BREEDING PELLETS
FUEL ELEMENTS
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
LWBR TYPE REACTORS
POWER GENERATION
POWER REACTORS
BREEDING
POWER REACTORS
NONBREEDING
LIGHT-WATER MODERATED
NONBOILING WATER COOLED
REACTOR CORES
REACTOR OPERATION
SHIPPINGPORT REACTOR