Nuclear Energy (cont)

History (cont)

In 1952, a report by the Paley Commission (The President's Materials Policy Commission) for President Harry Truman made a "relatively pessimistic" assessment of nuclear power, and called for "aggressive research in the whole field of solar energy".[7] A December 1953 speech by President Dwight Eisenhower, "Atoms for Peace", emphasized the useful harnessing of the atom and set the U.S. on a course of strong government support for international use of nuclear power.

One of the first organizations to develop nuclear power was the U.S. Navy, for the purpose of propelling submarines and aircraft carriers. It has a good record in nuclear safety, perhaps because of the stringent demands of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, who was the driving force behind nuclear marine propulsion as well as the Shippingport Reactor. The U.S. Navy has operated more nuclear reactors than any other entity, including the Soviet Navy, with no publicly known major incidents. The first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus (SSN-571), put to sea in 1955. Two U.S. nuclear submarines, USS Scorpion and Thresher, have been lost at sea.

Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard in 1955 shared U.S. Patent 2,708,656 for the nuclear reactor, belatedly granted for the work they had done during the Manhattan Project.