At the end of the day, "first nuclear power plant" requires so many minutia that any number of plants could argue depending on how you define each term.

Last, you could also argue that the Vallecitos BWR preceded Dresden 1. Vallecitos was the direct, GE operated predecessor to Dresden 1 (and where most of the initial operators were trained).

You could also put the Shippingport station into this group. Commissioned in 1958, it was a (mostly) civilian operated plant in Pennsylvania.

However, the core came from a cancelled nuclear aircraft carrier (and used 93% HEU to boot) which places it more in the realm of government origination.

When we talk about the first power reactor connected to the grid, we could easily mean a plant like Obninsk in the Soviet Union, which connected to the grid in 1954. Obviously not a privately financed or operated plant though.

A BWR/1 fuel spacer grid, a commemorative plate for the dedication of Dresden 1, and a pair of commemorative pens.

A pair of pens commemorating the initial criticality of Dresden 1

A week late, but 6 days and 66 years ago, Dresden Generating Station Unit 1 went critical for the first time. Dresden 1 was the first privately financed nuclear power station in the United States (note all the qualifiers here)

So when we say the first nuclear power plant, what do we mean? 🧵

Why do you think the government hasn't appealed the second TRO? Given that, this ruling doesn't seem to have as much impact as it would otherwise.

I think only allowing the regulator to use carryover funding for activities either the industry (licensing and restart) or the administration (wholesale deregulation) wants, while the only inspectors working are going unpaid is a bit more appalling.

Honestly, not the nuclear related furloughs I'm particularly concerned about (although I am biased)

Been there, done that 😄

In an earlier part of my life, I was trying out cello bows and the shop snuck an **extremely** expensive bow into the lineup. They didn't tell me until afterwards and I was really glad I didn't know when I was trying it out.

My favorite of this genre is "technically up for sale, but at a price that means it's really a display"

There were some vendors at the big antique malls back in Ohio that had items sit there for almost a decade. Prices never changed, and I always wondered if they even cared if stuff sold.

Rancho Seco was a B&W designed PWR operated by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. It had a troubled operational history (including the infamous lightbulb incident) and shutdown in 1989.

A no trespassing sign mounted to a shelf

A poorly fitted 3d printed bracket on a shelf we

A revised bracket design

A rendering of two 3d printed brackets

In an effort to distract from, well, everything, I spent the afternoon combining two hobbies. I've been looking for a good way to hang this sign since I picked it up last year. So I finally got around to prototyping and printing some brackets. My calipers had a dead battery, so there were changes 😅

Hopefully a cat will help?

Meanwhile, for example, the NRC isn't conducting the majority of it's inspections even though they had available carryover funding. And the resident inspectors who are working, are working unpaid.

Was this intended as an attack? Because it made me like him more

This is always a mistake imho

Given that the ADA requires the executive to essentially prosecute itself in situations like this, how do we fix it going forward? Say in the example of the first 3 years of a first term. Normally the statute of limitations running into a new president would deter, but nobody seems to consider that

On the flip side for American military museums, the USN Undersea Museum had an excellent exhibit on LGBTQ submariners (and other social/people focused exhibits) in with the usual military equipment focused exhibits. I don't want to think about what that display looks like now though

This is my struggle with a lot of museums of this type. I spent a lot of time at NMUSAF as a kid (tbf they've gotten better but it's an easy example). They could do all sorts of interesting things with interpretation, but often don't. A lot of this is driven by funding, but it's still disappointing

That is correct. Like I said, I don't know how they can possibly hide their DoE connection

Maybe it's less obvious than say Bradbury, but that stated goal is just kind of nonsense. Nobody is creating that kind of non critical content without reason.

Granted, it's been a long time since I visited, but as I recall, there's no plausible way for that to be true with any critical thinking at all. Like, given the subject matter, I don't think it's possible to do much of anything without heavy government involvement.

Why are they cranky about you making information requests?

The entire history of archeology in the southwest comes to mind. Glares at Chaco Canyon.

This seems like a good way to make a judge peeved with you.

Giving all the HPs at work 3d printed Co-60 sources has been a source of continual amusement

I finally gave in and bought a 3d printer last month and it has been so much fun, even for just printing silly stuff.

One would almost think they're not conducting these RIFs with the care required to perform one correctly.

A pretty significant number of plants had visitor centers. Most of them were a casualty of the post 9/11 increase in security, although some of them still allow visitors on occasion

My favorite is either the chunk of weld overlay or the BWR/1 spacer grid. The weld overlay because I'm a metals geek and it's a relic of a particularly painful period for the domestic BWR fleet and the fuel grid because anything from those early plants is hard to find.