https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/ Nuclear news, theory and concepts. en https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/175-rtg-deep-space.html From a 2.7-watt generator on Transit 4A in 1961 to the Voyagers, which still run in 2026 while losing about 4 watts a year, RTGs turned plutonium-238 decay heat into power for deep-space exploration. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/175-rtg-deep-space.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/174-nerva-project-rover.html From the first Kiwi reactor test in 1959 to cancellation in January 1973, Rover and NERVA proved that a reactor heating hydrogen could drive a rocket, but no nuclear rocket ever left the ground. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/174-nerva-project-rover.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/173-snap-10a-space-reactor.html Launched on 3 April 1965, SNAP-10A produced roughly 500 to 650 watts for 43 days before a satellite voltage regulator failed; it remains the only reactor the United States has flown. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/173-snap-10a-space-reactor.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/172-russian-nuclear-icebreaker-fleet.html Arktika reached the North Pole on 17 August 1977; today four Project 22220 icebreakers with RITM-200 reactors are in service, three more are being built, and Russia operated eight nuclear icebreakers at the end of 2024. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/172-russian-nuclear-icebreaker-fleet.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/171-other-nations-nuclear-submarines.html HMS Dreadnought (launched 1960, US S5W reactor), Le Redoutable (1967), China's Changzheng 1 (1970) and India's INS Arihant (2009) made four more nations nuclear-submarine operators after the US and USSR. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/171-other-nations-nuclear-submarines.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/170-kursk-disaster.html On 12 August 2000 a torpedo explosion sank the Russian submarine Kursk with all 118 aboard; its two reactors shut down, Norwegian monitoring found no radioactive leakage, and the hull was raised in 2001 and defuelled by 2003. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/170-kursk-disaster.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/169-uss-scorpion-loss.html USS Scorpion was lost southwest of the Azores on 22 May 1968 with all 99 men; the Court of Inquiry could not determine the cause, competing explanations remain, and Navy surveys found no release from the reactor fuel. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/169-uss-scorpion-loss.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/168-thresher-subsafe.html On 10 April 1963 USS Thresher was lost with 129 aboard during a deep test dive; within two months the Navy created SUBSAFE, which certifies submarines only on documented evidence. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/168-thresher-subsafe.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/167-operation-sea-orbit.html From 31 July to 3 October 1964 the nuclear-powered Enterprise, Long Beach and Bainbridge circled the globe as Task Force One without refuelling or replenishment. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/167-operation-sea-orbit.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/166-uss-enterprise-cvan-65.html Commissioned on 25 November 1961, USS Enterprise carried eight A2W reactors, served through the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam over 51 years, and was followed 14 years later by the two-reactor Nimitz class. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/166-uss-enterprise-cvan-65.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/165-mutsu-nuclear-ship.html On 1 September 1974 fast neutrons streamed through a gap in the shielding of Japan's nuclear ship Mutsu; fishermen blocked her return for fifty days, and she sailed again only in 1990 before becoming the research vessel Mirai. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/165-mutsu-nuclear-ship.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/164-otto-hahn-nuclear-ship.html Launched in Kiel in 1964 and named after the chemist whose work revealed fission, the Otto Hahn sailed some 642,000 to 650,000 nautical miles on nuclear power before economics and port access ended her nuclear career in 1979. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/164-otto-hahn-nuclear-ship.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/163-ns-savannah.html Launched in 1959 and in service from 1962 to 1970, NS Savannah showed that a pressurized-water reactor could power a merchant ship, but liability rules, port access and cost kept nuclear merchant shipping from taking off. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/163-ns-savannah.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/162-icebreaker-lenin.html The Soviet icebreaker Lenin, commissioned on 3 December 1959 with three OK-150 reactors, was the first nuclear-powered surface ship; after a 1965 accident her reactors were replaced and she worked the Arctic until 1989. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/162-icebreaker-lenin.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/161-george-washington-ssbn.html Built from a hull laid down as an attack submarine, USS George Washington made the first submerged ballistic missile launch on 20 July 1960 and began the first deterrent patrol on 15 November 1960. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/161-george-washington-ssbn.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/160-k19-reactor-accident.html On 4 July 1961 a reactor aboard the Soviet missile submarine K-19 lost its coolant; repair teams welded in a makeshift cooling line, eight of them died of acute radiation syndrome, and the accident was kept secret until around 1990. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/160-k19-reactor-accident.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/159-soviet-k3-submarine.html K-3 first sailed on nuclear power on 4 July 1958, about three and a half years after Nautilus, reached the North Pole on 17 July 1962 and has been a museum exhibit in Kronstadt since 2023. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/159-soviet-k3-submarine.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/158-triton-submerged-circumnavigation.html From 24 February to 25 April 1960, USS Triton sailed 26,723 nautical miles around the world submerged, the first submerged circumnavigation, in a voyage planned to impress before the Paris summit. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/158-triton-submerged-circumnavigation.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/157-seawolf-sodium-reactor.html USS Seawolf, launched in 1955 with GE's liquid-sodium-cooled S2G reactor, suffered steam generator and superheater leaks; Rickover decided in November 1956 to replace it, and after 60 days submerged in 1958 she was recommissioned with a pressurized water reactor in 1960. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/157-seawolf-sodium-reactor.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/156-nautilus-north-pole.html In Operation Sunshine, USS Nautilus left Pearl Harbor in July 1958, crossed the North Pole submerged at 11:15 p.m. (EDT) on 3 August with 116 men aboard, and surfaced in the Greenland Sea after 1,830 miles and 96 hours under the ice. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/156-nautilus-north-pole.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/155-underway-on-nuclear-power.html On 17 January 1955 USS Nautilus signalled "Underway on nuclear power", then made a record 1,381-nautical-mile submerged run to San Juan and sailed more than 60,000 nautical miles before her first refuelling in 1957. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/155-underway-on-nuclear-power.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/154-nautilus-launch.html Mamie Eisenhower christened USS Nautilus at Groton on 21 January 1954; the first nuclear submarine was commissioned that September and first went to sea under nuclear power in January 1955. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/154-nautilus-launch.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/153-str-mark-1-prototype.html The STR Mark I (later S1W) prototype went critical in Idaho on 30 March 1953 and in June ran about 100 hours, plotted as an Atlantic crossing, clearing the way for USS Nautilus. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/153-str-mark-1-prototype.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/152-naval-reactors-program.html Between 1946 and 1952 the Navy and the Atomic Energy Commission built a two-hat organization under Rickover that set Westinghouse Bettis and GE Knolls to work on submarine reactors and led to the keel of Nautilus. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/152-naval-reactors-program.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/151-rickover-navy-culture.html Hyman G. Rickover hand-picked every nuclear officer, demanded personal responsibility and built a naval reactor program with a 70-year operating record, before being forced to retire in 1982 after 63 years in uniform. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/151-rickover-navy-culture.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/news/2026-10-30-dukovany-construction-contract-talks.html Daewoo E&C and Doosan Enerbility disclosed on October 29 that KHNP intends to end construction contract negotiations for the two Dukovany units. The main equipment contract signed on December 16, 2025 continues, a separate cooling-tower tender is under way, and Daewoo E&C plans a follow-up disclosure by November 27. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/news/2026-10-30-dukovany-construction-contract-talks.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/news/2026-10-30-cernavoda-danube-water-level-restart.html Nuclearelectrica kept Cernavoda Units 1 and 2 in safe shutdown on October 29. Shut down since July 28 and August 13 as the Danube's flow and level fell, the units await three conditions: reaching the required intake level, holding it for several days and a rising trend. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/news/2026-10-30-cernavoda-danube-water-level-restart.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/news/2026-10-30-bohunice-ap1000-feed-study.html Westinghouse announced on October 28 a six-month front-end engineering and design study for JESS on one AP1000 at Jaslovské Bohunice, partly funded by a U.S. State Department FIRST grant. Its results will inform JESS's decision on the project's next steps. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/news/2026-10-30-bohunice-ap1000-feed-study.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/150-atoms-for-peace.html On 8 December 1953 Eisenhower proposed at the UN that nations deposit uranium and fissionable material with an International Atomic Energy Agency for peaceful use, a speech that led toward the IAEA of 1957. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/150-atoms-for-peace.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/149-duck-and-cover.html After 1949 the US Federal Civil Defense Administration taught schoolchildren to duck and cover with Bert the Turtle, marked radio dials for CONELRAD and later posted fallout shelter signs, while monster films turned nuclear fear into entertainment. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/149-duck-and-cover.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/148-harwell-windscale-piles.html From GLEEP going critical in a Harwell hangar on 15 August 1947 to the first British plutonium from the air-cooled Windscale Piles on 28 March 1952, Britain built research and production side by side. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/148-harwell-windscale-piles.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/147-cea-zoe-reactor.html France founded the CEA on 18 October 1945 under Frédéric Joliot-Curie and Raoul Dautry, and its first reactor, ZOE, a natural-uranium heavy-water pile, went critical on 15 December 1948. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/147-cea-zoe-reactor.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/146-soviet-hydrogen-bombs.html The Soviet RDS-6s of 12 August 1953 was a single-stage 'sloika' of about 400 kt with only 15–20% fusion; the true two-stage RDS-37 followed on 22 November 1955, air-dropped at about 1.6 Mt. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/146-soviet-hydrogen-bombs.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/145-russell-einstein-manifesto.html Launched in London on 9 July 1955, the Russell–Einstein Manifesto asked governments and citizens to renounce war in the hydrogen-bomb age; it led to the first Pugwash conference in 1957 and the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize for Rotblat and Pugwash. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/145-russell-einstein-manifesto.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/144-castle-bravo-lucky-dragon.html On 1 March 1954 Castle Bravo yielded 15 megatons, about 2.5 times the forecast, and fallout reached Marshall Islanders and the 23 crew of the Lucky Dragon No. 5, whose radio operator Aikichi Kuboyama died that September. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/144-castle-bravo-lucky-dragon.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/143-oppenheimer-security-hearing.html In 1954 the Atomic Energy Commission revoked J. Robert Oppenheimer's security clearance by a 4–1 vote after a closed hearing that accepted his loyalty but faulted his character and associations; he received the Fermi Award in 1963 and the decision was vacated in 2022. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/143-oppenheimer-security-hearing.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/142-rosenberg-case.html Arrested in 1950 after Klaus Fuchs's confession set off a chain of arrests, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of espionage conspiracy and executed in 1953; Venona files and later admissions supported the case against Julius while Ethel's role remains disputed. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/142-rosenberg-case.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/141-materials-testing-reactor.html The Materials Testing Reactor, designed at Oak Ridge with Eugene Wigner's influence and built in Idaho, reached an average thermal flux of about 2×10¹⁴ n/cm²·s, ran more than 15,000 irradiation experiments from 1952 to 1970, and was followed by the ETR and the still-operating ATR. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/141-materials-testing-reactor.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/140-aircraft-nuclear-propulsion.html From 1946 to 1961 the US Air Force and the AEC spent about $1,040 million on nuclear aircraft propulsion; a converted B-36 carried a test reactor on 47 flights and HTRE ground tests ran jet engines on reactor heat, but President Kennedy cancelled the program on 28 March 1961 without any nuclear-powered flight. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/140-aircraft-nuclear-propulsion.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/139-ebr-i-first-nuclear-electricity.html On 20 December 1951 Walter Zinn's Experimental Breeder Reactor I in Idaho lit four 200-watt bulbs, the first usable amount of nuclear electricity, before confirming breeding in 1953. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/139-ebr-i-first-nuclear-electricity.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/138-operation-hurricane.html On 3 October 1952 Britain tested its first atomic bomb, about 25 kilotons, inside HMS Plym off Western Australia, to study a ship-smuggled bomb in a port and to prove it could build the weapon on its own. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/138-operation-hurricane.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/137-ivy-mike.html On 1 November 1952 the United States fired Ivy Mike, the first full-scale two-stage thermonuclear test, yielding 10.4 megatons, erasing Elugelab island and producing einsteinium and fermium, which stayed secret until 1955. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/137-ivy-mike.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/136-teller-ulam-design.html In early 1951 Stanisław Ulam proposed compressing fusion fuel before igniting it and Edward Teller added compression by X-rays; their joint report LAMS-1225 of 9 March 1951 became the basis of the hydrogen bomb, first proven at Ivy Mike on 1 November 1952. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/136-teller-ulam-design.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/135-hbomb-debate-gac-report.html On 30 October 1949 the AEC's General Advisory Committee unanimously opposed an all-out effort on the hydrogen bomb, its majority calling it a possible weapon of genocide and Fermi and Rabi an evil thing in any light, before Truman ordered the work on 31 January 1950. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/135-hbomb-debate-gac-report.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/134-rds1-soviet-bomb.html The Soviet Union exploded RDS-1, a roughly 22-kiloton plutonium implosion device, at Semipalatinsk on 29 August 1949; a U.S. WB-29 filter caught the debris on 3 September and Truman announced it on 23 September. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/134-rds1-soviet-bomb.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/133-soviet-f1-reactor.html On 25 December 1946 the Soviet F-1 reactor, about 400 t of graphite and 50 t of uranium metal stacked in a 10 m pit in Moscow, became the first reactor in Europe and Asia to go critical, paving the way for the 1948 production reactor A. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/133-soviet-f1-reactor.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/132-radioisotope-distribution.html On 2 August 1946 Oak Ridge sent its first official shipment of a reactor-made radioisotope, starting a program that supplied tracers for medicine and research at home and abroad and passed 175,000 shipments by 1962. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/132-radioisotope-distribution.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/131-national-laboratories.html Argonne opened as the first U.S. national laboratory on 1 July 1946, Brookhaven followed in 1947 under nine universities, and Clinton Laboratories survived a 1947 crisis to become Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1948, setting the GOCO model still used by the DOE's 17 labs. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/131-national-laboratories.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/130-operation-crossroads.html Operation Crossroads in July 1946 tested two 23-kiloton bombs against a target fleet at Bikini Atoll; the underwater Baker shot showed that radioactive contamination outlasts the blast, and the relocated Bikinians never returned permanently. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/130-operation-crossroads.html https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/129-baruch-plan.html On 14 June 1946 Bernard Baruch proposed an international Atomic Development Authority with penalties and no veto; the Soviet Union answered with a ban first, and the UN Atomic Energy Commission deadlocked until its dissolution in 1952. https://nuclearist-maker.github.io/GlobalNuclearNews/posts/history/129-baruch-plan.html