How Nuclear Power-Generating Reactors Have Evolved Since Their Birth in the 1950s

Four internationally recognized climate scientists issued this plea to fellow environmentalists in November 2013, arguing that nuclear energy needs to be a part of the global climate change solution.

Reactor pressure vessel during construction of Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, 1956. Wikimedia Commons

Four internationally recognized climate scientists issued this plea to fellow environmentalists in November 2013, arguing that nuclear energy needs to be a part of the global climate change solution. We need to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels. Nuclear power is the best option today; it can deliver electric power in a sufficiently safe, economical, continuous, and secure manner synergistic with supply from other carbon-free sources such as solar and wind. And the technology has been evolving since its birth during World War II.

Scale model of Fermi's CP-1 reactor, actually built in the University of Chicago rackets court. (ENERGY.GOV (HD.5A.032)/Wikimedia Commons)