Man witnessed first nuke power in CSRA

It is great to see the role of Savannah River Site recognized March 14 on The Augusta Chronicle's front page and recognized by the South Carolina historical markers. I had nearly 44 years of service there and have many memories of the achievements at the former Savannah River Plant.

R Reactor began operations Dec. 28, 1953, but SRP didn't really start up until two days later, when first production of plutonium and tritium was started on the evening shift that night around 8:30 to 9 p.m. The operation two days earlier was at zero power when R Reactor was taken critical, but without any power. This is the same as operation without any production.

On the evening of December 30, 1953, R Reactor was critical at zero power when we raised power to 50 megawatts. That was the real startup of the Savannah River Plant by actually making product. I had a Whetstone bridge connected to a thermocouple measuring the temperature of the cooling water going through a fuel assembly near the center of the reactor. I measured the voltage from the thermocouple at zero power, then set the dials to show the voltage at a temperature increase equal to the power level we were aiming for. The needle went off to one side. I saw the needle start to move before anyone else to its null point as power was introduced. Thus, I saw start of production at SRP first. ...

There were 10 reactors at SRP, three of which started up before R Reactor. ... All of them had a vital role in developing information for the running of SRP, but they did not make any product. Later, the Resonance Test Reactor and the Heavy Water Components Test Reactor were also operated at SRP for obtaining information.

Peter L. Gray, Aiken, S.C.