Shippingport Light Water Breeder Reactor

Podcast: The Innovation Attorney Podcast · The Innovation Attorney

Opublikowano: 2026-10-23

The Shippingport Light Water Breeder Reactor, which ran from 1977 to 1982, demonstrated that a thorium and uranium 233 core can breed fuel, ending with 1.39 percent more fissile material. Core 3 at the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania produced about 2.1 billion kilowatt hours of gross electricity over roughly 29,000 effective full power hours, and assay of 524 discharged fuel rods confirmed the gain in fissile inventory. Examiners found no fuel element defects. Power operation stopped on October 1, 1982, and the Department of Energy completed dismantlement in 1989 for $91.3 million. Shippingport was the first full scale American reactor built only to...