Events between 1951 and 1954 accelerated the drive for commercial
nuclear power. In the winter of 1951, a small government reactor at the Idaho
National Engineering Laboratory produced electricity for the first time.
Eisenhowers' "Atoms for Peace" speech in December 1953 emphasized an
international program of civilian uses of atomic energy, especially power
reactors for export to fuel-hungry Europe.

That same December, the Atomic Energy Commission selected the
Duquesne Light and Power Company, a Pittsburgh utility, to join a three-
way partnership in the construction and operation of the first civilian nuclear
power plant. Duquesne would provide the land and about $300 million and
would operate and maintain the plant. Duquesne's partners would be the
federal government and the Westinghouse corporation, which would manu-
facture the reactor. "Off the shell" technology would be used. The reactor
was a civilian version of a pressurized water reactor Westinghouse was
building for Hyman G. Rickoverns Navy program. Admiral Lewis L. Strauss,
a science adviser to Eisenhower who would later chair the Atomic Energy
Commission, recommended adapting the Navy's pressurized water reactor
to civilian purposes, otherwise "much time and momentum would be lost
by turning over this project to a new contractor. . . ." To act quickly was
paramount.

Congress encouraged further private reactor development when it
amended the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 in the summer of 1954. Under the
1954 Act, free enterprise would provide the impetus for civilian nuclear
power. The new legislation permitted the government to license private
corporations to build and operate nuclear-fueled power plants. The Atomic
Energy Commission could continue to fund research and development, but

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