NUCLEAR REACTOR (1951)

ZINN USES NUCLEAR FISSION TO MAKE ELECTRICITY 

The heat generate from the reaction was used to turn water into steam, turning turbine to generate electricity .on its first successful run the reactor produced enough power to run just for light bulbs .The next day it produce enough to power the entire search facility, and today nuclear power station, many of them based on original design, provide some 16 percent of the world’s electricity

Nuclear energy is made when nuclear power is derived from the relatively large atom are split in series of controlled nuclear reaction .the resulting heat is used to drive the turbine to generate electricity .the process of splitting an atom is called nuclear fission   

Harnessing the power of the atom has been a major goal of both science and science fiction, capturing the public imagination with the promise of cheap, clean energy. The initial idea was developed until December 20, 1951, when a switch was flicked and the experimental breeder reactor 1 (EBR1) was switched on, becoming the first nuclear reactor to generate electrical energy, and therefore become the first nuclear power plant.

Walter Zinn(1906-2000), the chief scientist behind the work, started his career I nuclear engineering in 1939. Just three years later, in 1942 he became the first to produce a self sustaining nuclear reaction as a part of manhattan project. Which was developing the nuclear bomb .after the World War II ended in 1945 the atomic energy commission (AEC) assigned resource to research peaceful use of the power of the atom, and develop nuclear power for electricity generation

The reactor EBR1 ran until 1963, continuing research into nuclear energy. Zinn himself continued to refine the reactor design. His boiling water reactor, among many of his later design in the field, became the prototype for commercial nuclear power plant