Difference between revisions of "Timeline of nuclear energy"
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| 1973 || Reactor || The first large RBMK (1,000 MW - high-power channel reactor) is commissioned at {{w|Sosnovy Bor, Leningrad Oblast}}.<ref name="Outline History of Nuclear Energy"/> || {{w|Soviet Union}} | | 1973 || Reactor || The first large RBMK (1,000 MW - high-power channel reactor) is commissioned at {{w|Sosnovy Bor, Leningrad Oblast}}.<ref name="Outline History of Nuclear Energy"/> || {{w|Soviet Union}} | ||
|- | |- | ||
− | | 1974 || Policy || France decides to make a major push for nuclear energy. | + | | 1974 || Policy || France decides to make a major push for nuclear energy. By 2004, the country would end up with 75% of its electricity coming from nuclear reactors.<ref name="History of Nuclear Energy whatisnuclear.com"/> || {{w|France}} |
|- | |- | ||
| 1974 || Power plant || {{w|Atucha I Nuclear Power Plant}} becomes operational near {{w|Zárate, Buenos Aires}}. It's the first nuclear power plant in {{w|Latin America}}. || {{w|Argentina}} | | 1974 || Power plant || {{w|Atucha I Nuclear Power Plant}} becomes operational near {{w|Zárate, Buenos Aires}}. It's the first nuclear power plant in {{w|Latin America}}. || {{w|Argentina}} | ||
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| 1984 || Power plant || The {{w|Koeberg Nuclear Power Station}} is commissioned 30 km north of {{w|Cape Town}}, {{w|South Africa}}. It remains the only one in the country, and the only one on the entire African continent. || {{w|South Africa}} | | 1984 || Power plant || The {{w|Koeberg Nuclear Power Station}} is commissioned 30 km north of {{w|Cape Town}}, {{w|South Africa}}. It remains the only one in the country, and the only one on the entire African continent. || {{w|South Africa}} | ||
|- | |- | ||
− | | 1986 || Accident || The Chernobyl | + | | 1986 || Accident || The {{w|Chernobyl disaster}} occurs after a safety test deliberately turns off [[w:Control rod|safety systems]]. A large amount of radiation occurs, over fifty firefighter die, and up to 4,000 civilians are estimated to die of early cancer.<ref name="History of Nuclear Energy whatisnuclear.com"/> || {{w|Soviet Union}} |
|- | |- | ||
| 1987 || || Yucca Mountain is considered as a storage place for nuclear waste material produced in the US. || | | 1987 || || Yucca Mountain is considered as a storage place for nuclear waste material produced in the US. || |
Revision as of 21:35, 14 December 2017
This is a timeline of nuclear energy.
Contents
Sample questions
The following are some interesting questions that can be answered by reading this timeline:
- How did the focus on nuclear energy changed from military use to peaceful purposes throughout history?
- Which were important treaties concerning the use of nuclear energy?
Big picture
Time period | Development summary |
---|---|
1895–1945 | The science of atomic radiation, atomic change and nuclear fission is developed in this period, much of it in the last six of those years, in which most development is focused on the atomic bomb.[1] |
1945–1950s | After the end of World War II attention is given to harnessing nuclear energy in a controlled fashion for naval propulsion and for making electricity. In the 1950s, nuclear power is first used for electricity generation. Since 1956, the prime focus is put on the technological evolution of reliable nuclear power plants.[2][3] |
1960–late 1970s | The world’s nuclear capacity grows from 1 GW to over 100 GW, driven by the growth of electricity consumption and a political desire to move away from oil dependency following the oil crisis of the 1970s.[2] The nuclear power industry in the United States grows rapidly in the 1960s. Utility companies see this
new form of electricity production as economical, environmentally clean, and safe.[3] |
1970s–2002 | The nuclear power industry suffers some decline and stagnation.[1] In the mid–1970s public opinion grows more critical of nuclear power, with increasing fear of accidents and an uncertainty as to the handling of radioactive waste.[2] |
1980s | Chernobyl |
1990s |
Full timeline
Year | Event type | Details | Country |
---|---|---|---|
1789 | German chemist Martin Klaproth discovers uranium and names it after the planet Uranus.[1] | Germany? | |
1895 | German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen discovers X-rays.[1][4] | Germany | |
1896 | French phycisist Henry Bequerel becomes the first to discover evidence of radioactivity. The name of the phenomenon is given by Pierre and Marie Curie.[1][4] | France | |
1898 | Pierre and Marie Curie isolate polonium and radium from the pitchblende.[1] | France | |
1898 | Samuel Prescott shows that radiation destroys bacteria in food.[1] | ||
1899 | New Zealand-born British physicist Ernest Rutherford distinguishes alpha and beta radiation and discovers Half-life.[4] | United Kingdom | |
1900 | French scientist Paul Ulrich Villard discovers gamma rays while studying the radiation emanating from radium.[1] | ||
1902-1919 | Ernest Rutherford shows that radioactivity as a spontaneous event emitting an alpha or beta particle from the nucleus creates a different element. Rutherford would go on to develop a fuller understanding of atoms and in 1919 he manages to fire alpha particles from a radium source into nitrogen and finds that nuclear rearrangement is occurring, with formation of oxygen.[1][3][4] | United Kingdom | |
1905 | Scientific development | Albert Einstein publishes paper putting forward the equivalence between mass and energy.[1] | Germany |
1911 | English radiochemist Frederick Soddy discovers that naturally-radioactive elements have a number of different isotopes (radionuclides), with the same chemistry. In the same year, Hungarian radiochemist George de Hevesy shows that such radionuclides are invaluable as tracers, because minute amounts can readily be detected with simple instruments.[1] | United Kingdom | |
1913 | Bohr model of the atomic structure. | ||
1920 | Scientific development | Ernest Rutherford theorizes a "neutron".[4] | |
1932 | Scientific development | English physicist James Chadwick discovers the neutron.[1][4] | United Kingdom |
1932 | Scientific development | Cockcroft and Walton produce nuclear transformations by bombarding atoms with accelerated protons.[1] | |
1934 | Scientific development | Irene Curie and Frederic Joliot find that some transformations like those created by Cockcroft and Walton create artificial radionuclides, thus discovering artificial radioactivity.[1] | France |
1935 | Scientific development | Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi finds that a much greater variety of artificial radionuclides could be formed when neutrons are used instead of protons.[1] | Italy |
1938 | Scientific development | German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Berlin show that the new lighter elements are barium and others which are about half the mass of uranium, thereby demonstrating that nuclear fission has occurred.[1][3] | Germany |
1939 | Scientific development | Otto Hahn and Austrian-Swedish physicist Lise Meitner, along with a small group of scientists, publish results of their discovery of nuclear fission of uranium when it absorbes an extra neutron.[5][6] | |
1939 | Scientific development | Frederic Curie confirmed a theory put forth by Leo Szilard. World War II begins. | |
1939 | The Einstein–Szilárd letter is written by Leo Szilard and signed by Albert Einstein, warning American president Theodore Roosevelt of possibility of nuclear weapons.[4] | ||
1939 | Theodore Roosevelt authorizes the creation of an Advisory Committee on Uranium, beginning US nuclear bomb effort.[4] | United States | |
1942 | Scientific development | Enrico Fermi and Hungarian-born American physicist Leo Szilard measure neutron multiplication, concluding that a nuclear chain reaction is possible. That year, the couple creates the Chicago Pile-1, Chicago University.[4] | United States |
1942 (December 2) | Scientific development | Manhattan Project: The world's first nuclear chain reaction takes place in Chicago.[7][3] | United States |
1945 (July 16) | Weapon (test) | Manhattan Project: The United States stages first test of a plutonium weapon, code-named “Trinity”, before dawn in the Jornada del Muerto desert in New Mexico.[7][3] The test is successful.[4] | United States |
1945 (August 6–9) | Weapon | Manhattan Project: American bomber drops atomic bomb on Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, the Americans drop the second nuclear attack on Nagasaki. These are the first and last time nuclear energy is used as a weapon.[7][3] | Japan |
1946 | Organization | The United States Congress creates the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).[3] | United States |
1947 | Research | The Atomic Energy Commission first investigates the possibility of peaceful uses of atomic energy.[3] | United States |
1949 | The Soviet Union gets the atomic bomb. | ||
1951 | Experimental Breeder Reactor I starts up in Idaho and produces the world’s first useable electric power from nuclear energy, illuminating four light bulbs.[7] | United States | |
1952 | first Hydrogen bomb. | ||
1953 (December 8) | United States president Dwight D. Eisenhower gives Atoms for Peace speech to the UN General Assembly in New York City, launching civilian program.[4] | United States | |
1954 | Power plant | The Soviet Union opens the 5 MW Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, the first nuclear power plant to produce electricity for a power grid.[7] | Russia |
1955 | Submarine | The USS Nautilus (SSN-571) launches as the first nuclear-powered submarine.[4] | United States |
1955 (August 8–20) | Conference | The first United Nations International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy is hosted in Geneva.[3] | Switzerland |
1956 | Power plant | Calder Hall opens in Sellafield, England. It is the first commercial nuclear power station for civil use.[2][7] | United Kingdom |
1956 | Power plant | Marcoule Nuclear Site is commissioned by the French nuclear program, generating its first electricity.[7] | France |
1957 | Power plant | The United States completes its first large-scale nuclear power plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania.[7][3] | United States |
1959 | Power plant | The first nuclear plant built without government funding is completed in Dresden, Illinois. | United States |
1960 | Power plant | Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Station starts operation in Rowe, Massachusetts, using the first fully commercial PWR of 250 MWe, designed by Westinghouse.[1] | United States |
1961 (November 22) | Ship | The United States Navy commissions the world’s largest ship, the USS Enterprise (CVN-65), a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with the ability to operate at speeds upto 30 knots for distances up to 740,800 kilometers without refueling.[3] | United States |
1964 | Power plant | The first two Soviet nuclear power plants are commissioned.[1] | Soviet Union |
1965 | The US launches the first nuclear reactor in space. | ||
1970 (March 5) | Treaty | The United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and 45 other nations ratify the Treaty for Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.[3] | |
1972 | Reactor | The world's first commercial prototype fast neutron reactor (the BN-350) started up in Kazakhstan, producing 120 MW of electricity and heat to desalinate Caspian seawater.[1] | Soviet Union |
1973 | Reactor | The first large RBMK (1,000 MW - high-power channel reactor) is commissioned at Sosnovy Bor, Leningrad Oblast.[1] | Soviet Union |
1974 | Policy | France decides to make a major push for nuclear energy. By 2004, the country would end up with 75% of its electricity coming from nuclear reactors.[4] | France |
1974 | Power plant | Atucha I Nuclear Power Plant becomes operational near Zárate, Buenos Aires. It's the first nuclear power plant in Latin America. | Argentina |
1979 (March 28) | Accident | The Three mile island accident is the worst accident in United States commercial reactor history. The accident is caused by a loss of coolant from the reactor core due to a combination of mechanical malfunction and human error. However, no one is injured, and no overexposure to radiation results from the accident.[2][7][3][4] | United States |
1983 | Nuclear power generates more energy than natural gas. | ||
1984 | Power plant | The Koeberg Nuclear Power Station is commissioned 30 km north of Cape Town, South Africa. It remains the only one in the country, and the only one on the entire African continent. | South Africa |
1986 | Accident | The Chernobyl disaster occurs after a safety test deliberately turns off safety systems. A large amount of radiation occurs, over fifty firefighter die, and up to 4,000 civilians are estimated to die of early cancer.[4] | Soviet Union |
1987 | Yucca Mountain is considered as a storage place for nuclear waste material produced in the US. | ||
1990 | Policy | Italy has all of its four reactors closed down.[2] | |
1991 | Statistics | The United States have twice as many operating nuclear powerplants as any other country. At the end of the year, 31 other countries also have nuclear powerplants in commercial operation or under construction.[3] | |
1994 | Treaty | The Megatons to Megawatts Program is signed between the United States and Russia, to downblend nuclear warheads into reactor fuel. Eventually, 10% of US electricity would come from dismantled nuclear weapons.[4] | |
1996 | Reactor | Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Japan’s biggest power utility, starts commercial operation of the world’s first advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR), commissioned at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant.[7] | Japan |
2005 | Power plant | Finland approves construction of one of the world’s largest nuclear power plants, raising the dormant atomic power industry’s hopes for a revival.[7] | Finland |
2011 (March 11) | Accident | A 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami wrecks the Fukushima nuclear plant, triggering nuclear meltdowns that contaminate food and water and force mass evacuations. Nearly 16,000 people are killed in the earthquake and the tsunami and 3,300 remain unaccounted for. However, much of the radiation released of it goes out to sea instead of into populated area. No people are expected to die from radiation dose.[7][4][4] | Japan |
2012 | Japan shuts its last working nuclear power reactor following the nuclear disaster, leaving it without nuclear power for the first time since 1970.[7] | Japan | |
2013 (March) | Publication | Famous climate scientist James Hansen co-publishes a paper from NASA computing that, even with worst case estimates of nuclear accidents, nuclear energy as a whole has saved 1.8 million lives and counting by offsetting the air-pollution related deaths that come from fossil fuel plants. | |
2013 (September) | Space probe Voyager I enters interstellar space, 36 years after its launch. It is powered by a Plutonium-238 Radioisotope thermoelectric generator.[4] |
Meta information on the timeline
How the timeline was built
The initial version of the timeline was written by User:Sebastian.
Funding information for this timeline is available.
What the timeline is still missing
Timeline update strategy
See also
External links
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 "Outline History of Nuclear Energy". world-nuclear.org. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "History of nuclear power". corporate.vattenfall.com. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 "The History Of Nuclear Energy" (PDF). energy.gov. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 "History of Nuclear Energy". whatisnuclear.com. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
- ↑ Meitner, L.; Frisch, O. R. (1939). "Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: A New Type of Nuclear Reaction". Nature. 143 (3615): 239. Bibcode:1939Natur.143..239M. doi:10.1038/143239a0.
- ↑ Frisch, O. R. (1939). "Physical Evidence for the Division of Heavy Nuclei under Neutron Bombardment". Nature. 143 (3616): 276. Bibcode:1939Natur.143..276F. doi:10.1038/143276a0. [The experiment for this letter to the editor was conducted on 13 January 1939; see Richard Rhodes The Making of the Atomic Bomb 263 and 268 (Simon and Schuster, 1986).]
- ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 7.12 "Nuclear Power History: Timeline From Inception To Fukushima". huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 9 December 2017.