History Dec. 2, 1942 First controlled nuclear chain reaction: University of Chicago; Dr. Enrico Fermi; the Chicago Pile 1, the first demonstration reactor. 1947 Atomic Energy Act: signed by President Harry S. Truman. The first major amendment to the Act was signed in 1954 by President Eisenhower, which placed the nuclear energy industry under civilian control and created the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy. Dec. 1957 The first commercial nuclear power plant began operation in Shippingport Pa. April 1977 Reprocessing of nuclear fuel in the United States was banned by President Jimmy Carter, following a temporary hold on reprocessing initiated by President Gerald Ford. President Ronald Reagan lifted that ban in October 1981. Mar. 28, 1979 The worst U.S. nuclear power plant accident occurred at the Three Mile Island Unit 2 reactor near Harrisburg, Pa. Although a small amount of radiation was released, no injuries, deaths or discernible direct health effects were caused by the TMI-2 accident. The accident was due to a combination of equipment failure and the inability of plant operators to understand the reactor's condition. In response to recommendations by the Kemeny Commission, appointed by President Carter to investigate the accident, the industry established the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) in Oct. 1979. INPO set performance objectives, criteria, and guidelines for overall nuclear plant operations, and started conducting regular evaluations of nuclear plants. INPO began monitoring performance indicators in 1981 and formed the National Academy for Nuclear Training in 1985 to accredit nuclear utilities' training programs for plant operators and supervisors of operations. In response to INPO's report to the Commission in Mar. 1989, ten years after the accident, John Kemeny, chairman, said: "The [industy's] improvements over the past decade have been impressive and are very reassuring." Jan. 7, 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which was amended in 1987. It authorized and required the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to locate and build a permanent repository and an interim storage facility and develop a transportation system to safely link nuclear plants to the facilities. The Act obligated DOE to begin disposal of high-level radioactive waste from commercial nuclear facilities by January 31, 1998. To date, that process has not begun due to economic reasons. Also, no site has been selected for the interim storage facility. 1983-1984 Nuclear power surpassed natural gas in electrical generation in 1983 and became the second-largest source of electricity in 1984, after coal. April 1986 The worse nuclear power plant disaster in history occurred at the Chernobyl Unit 4 reactor in the Ukraine, former Soviet Union. The Chernobyl accident was the product of a severely flawed reactor design—one that could never have been licensed in the U.S. - and serious mistakes were made by the plant operators, who violated procedures intended to ensure safe operation of the plant. The accident destroyed the reactor, killed 31 people, and contaminated large areas of Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation. The Chernobyl disaster was the only time in the history of commercial nuclear electricity generation that radiation-related fatalities occurred. February 25, 1999 Four midwestern utilities—Northern States Power Co., Wisconsin Electric Power Co., Wisconsin Public Service and Alliant Energy—announced the formation of a nuclear management company to consolidate management of the companies’ nuclear power plants. This consolidation marked the first venture of this nature in the nuclear industry. The utilities operate seven reactors in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. July 13, 1999 The nation’s first completed sale of a nuclear power plant occurred with Entergy Nuclear’s purchase of Boston Edison’s Pilgrim station. Entergy’s purchase increased the company’s holdings to six reactors in four states: Massachusetts, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. March 23, 2000 For the first time in history, the NRC approved the renewal of operating licenses for a commercial nuclear power plant. The 20-year license extension was for two reactors at Baltimore Gas and Electric’s Calvert Cliffs plant. During the 22 months that the NRC reviewed the Calvert Cliffs submittal, license renewal applications for another six of the nation’s 103 reactors were filed with the agency, and utilities owning another 22 reactors informed the NRC of their plans to apply by the year 2003. Original nuclear plant licenses are issued for a 40-year operating period. April 2, 2000 After completion of a six-month pilot program involving 13 reactors in November 1999, the NRC began implementing industrywide a new nuclear power plant oversight process designed to better focus agency and industry resources on issues most critical to power plant safety. The Union of Concerned Scientists was among the groups that endorsed the move to a more objective oversight system.