it was found that you all too could be centered successfully carried out in a hydrogen atmosphere this process increased both density and str many tests including in piles irradiation were performed on your rainy i'm alive and you ought to include more tests done intentionally defective samples based on these tests the oxide off for the most promise accordingly it was selected as the blanket fuel all of the development of the manufacturing processes was then begun the extensive test program was continued to verify the selection of you  more than two million uranium oxide pellets and ninety five thousand blanket tubes were made processing of pellets included agglomerate ing compacting centering and grinding seed cluster is an enriched uranium fuel plate it is sandwiched between two zero kone m l r i cover plates is ideally suitable control rod material while fuel manufacturing proceeded extensive reactor physics calculations were performed to determine the design reactivity of the c a certain amount of excess reactivity to be controlled by the control rods had to be provided to compensate for fuel depletion for the build up of vision product poisons and for reactivity changes between room temperature and operating temperature to provide for experimental checks of the calculations of flexible critical experiment in reality a nuclear model of the core was constructed at the bettas plant it was designed to operate at room temperature using this critical assembly calculations of reactivity of room temperature could be checked with a reasonable person but the reactivity of operating temperature could be an only on the basis of calculations initially there must be sufficient reactivity to sustain criticality or a neutron modification constant of one or unity the excess reactiv was designed to include six percent for fuel depletion four percent for vision product poisons three percent for temperature changes and five percent for sign margin for the uncertainties in the design of this unprecedented type of the total of eighteen percent excess reactivity was selected as the optimal more might cause difficulties with the operation and shutdown less either shortened life of the core operating measurements that have been made in the plant he indicated the reactivity calculations were substantially correct and that the five percent design margin that was included can be used to provide additional life time for the c the critical assembly also permitted an accurate determination of the control rods positions required to bring critic ality it was important that this be determined because in a power reactor unlike an experimental fact or the technique of adding fuel as a means of slowly approaching criticality is not practical the preliminary experimental work done made it possible to predict the initial critical position of the control rods to within the fraction inch out of a total motion of six feet the critical assembly also permitted measurements of neutron flux distribution since such measurements could be made only at room temperature the ultimate check could be made only on the shipping port reactor under operating conditions to permit such measurements and there my provide valuable information for use in the design of future reactors an elaborate system of coolant flow and temperature instrumentation was provided at shipping port half of the seed and about one thinks that the blanket fuel assemblies are instrumented for flow measurement approximately two thirds of the seed and one quarter of a blanket assemblies thermocouples place to measure the temperature of the water leaving the fuel assembly at the bottom of the core give core inlet water temperatures the temperature data and the flow data are used to compute power distribution in various regions of the core measurements which have been made indicated good agreement with the physics calculations to raise the power level or the control rods or the desired power is attained then they are moved back to the operating position to lower the output the opposite action is taken no action is necessary to a culture changes in electrical power demand imposed on this plant by the utility network this is due to the large negative reactivity which maintains a constant average water temperature in the primary circuit regardless of changes in steam demand for example if the inlet water temperature is five hundred eight degrees fahrenheit and the outlet temperature is five hundred thirty eight degrees the average water temperature is five hundred twenty three degrees with increased steam demand caused by an increase in electrical output the enlighted water temperature drop to five hundred degrees the reactor automatically increases power output and the outlet temperature automatically increases to five hundred forty six degrees note that the average temperature remained constant making the reactor plant virtually self regulating the value of this temperature coefficient was found to be minus three times ten to the minus four per fahrenheit degree at operating temperature value which agrees well with the calculations of this quantity nearly two years of design development and engineering were necessary before plans began to be definite and construction drawings made up then in march of nineteen fifty five construction began with the clearing of the sub by mid nine hundred fifty six considerable progress had been made the force of construction workers numbered in the hundreds by then a large part of the concrete shielding had been poured the container chambers were in place and the canal section could be identified easily with the reactors fear and position major equipment items began to arrive on the site the one hundred fifty ton pressure vessel having completed all of the sharp processes involved in its fabrication began its journey to the shipping port it was installed on october tenth nineteen fifty six the basic methods employed for installing the units were similar to those followed in major construction projects the high order of cleanliness was necessary while the primary system was open such as during installation of the thermal shield the climax of these operations came on october sixth nineteen fifty seven the precise placement of the fuel core in the the shipping port plant has a large number of newly developed items of equipment to ensure safety and reliability typical of these are zero leakage candy motor pumps in this design no shaft seal is necessary metal can hands in close both states are and the rover primary water circulates between them lubricating the bearings and cooling the induction motor a separate water supply cools the state coils the turban generator is outdoors unusual at latitude forty one degrees north in the united states the shaft speed of the unit is eighteen hundred  p m it is capable of producing one hundred thousand kilowatts in anticipation of future court developments the shipping port plant was completed and the full power operation was be approximately three years after the start of construction which is in line with the time taken to build none nuclear plants the total elapsed time from the award of the design contract was four and one half years extensive instrumentation will provide a vast amount of information never before available among the continuous readings taken our water pressures temperatures flow rates and the power level in the reactor in keeping with the developmental nature of the plant a large part of the instrumentation is provided for indicating and recording design information and unusual events and is not necessary for normal operation typical of this type of instrumentation is the extensive system designed to detect and locate the fuel element failures on december second nineteen fifty seven the reactor went critical for the first time this was the fifteenth anniversary of self sustaining nuclear fission in the world's first reactor at stagg field in chicago similar eighteenth nineteen fifty seven with a generator synchronized with a duquesne light company system the first step was made to go to full power on each successive day of the output was increased at fifty percent all but the coefficient of reactivity was measured and found to be in agreement with preliminary calculations made betis the full up thought of sixty thousand kilowatts was reached five days after synchronization the city of pittsburgh was lighted with the aid of atomic power shipping port this new source of power had been put to work it was a history making accomplishment many operational tests have been conducted and shipping port is operated with an ease and responsiveness surpassing conventional power stations in addition to its value was an operating power station is also to gain information to advance reactor technology tests are continuing for the purpose of carrying out this mission of the shipping port project to provide full scale plant experience in development design construction and operation experience that will be invaluable to the future of nuclear power the world