The Associated Press: A timeline of major events in nuclear power - 0 views
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Energy Net on 30 Mar 09_ 1955: A U.S. government reactor makes Arco, Idaho, the world's first town electrified by nuclear power. _ 1957: The U.S.' first commercial nuclear power plant becomes operational in Shippingport, Pa. (Nuclear reactors were already in service in the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom). It was retired in 1982. _ March 29, 1979: Three Mile Island Unit 2 in Middletown, Pa., melts down. No one was killed or seriously injured that day, but the public relations disaster sets back the industry for decades. _ April 26, 1986: Chernobyl nuclear power plant explodes in Soviet Ukraine, killing thousands. A radioactive cloud floats over much of Europe and large areas of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are contaminated. _ 1996: The U.S.' last new reactor comes online at Watts Bar nuclear power plant near Spring City, Tenn. It took 22 years to finish Unit 1 and Unit 2 remains unfinished, becoming a poster child of the industry's inefficiency. _ 2001: Worries about terrorist plots against nuclear power plants prompts new security measures. Governors send National Guard troops to watch over plants as public confidence about the safety of the installations drops. _ 2002: Employees discover an acid leak after it nearly ate through a reactor vessel cap at the Davis-Besse plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio. Owner FirstEnergy Corp. pays a record $28 million fine and juries convict two plant employees of hiding the corrosion. _ 2007: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission receives first full power plant application in 28 years. NRG Energy Inc.'s proposal for two reactors near Bay City, Texas, is one of 26 licenses pending at the agency. _ February 2009: President Barack Obama calls for a cap on greenhouse gas emissions. The proposal would almost certainly raise the cost to operate coal- and gas-fired plants and is seen as a boost for nuclear energy.