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History 101

Did you know the NRC has an official historian? It does, and his name is Tom Wellock. He wrote some very interesting posts about the history of the NRC, and the history of nuclear power (did you know where the term “scram” comes from?) for the agency blog. We’ve reproduced them here as PDFs for easy reading and downloading.

CRUD: Another Acronym Bites the Dust
Defense in Depth - A War for Safety
Penn State University’s Breazeale Reactor Celebrates 60 Years
Melting Ice with the Peaceful Atom: The NRC and the End of the Cold War
The Mystery of the Atomic Energy Commission Trowel — Part I
The Mystery of the Trowel – Solved
Radium Part I: Opening Pandora’s Box
Radium Part II: Trying to Close Pandora’s Box
The Reactor Safety Study: The Birth, Death and Rebirth of PRA
Putting the Axe to the ‘Scram’ Myth
The First Temple of the Atom: The AEC and the North Carolina State Research Reactor
Ensuring Safety in the First Temple of the Atom
“Too Cheap to Meter”: A History of the Phrase
Floating Nuclear Power Plants: A Technical Solution to a Land-based Problem
Waves of Uncertainty: The Demise of the Floating Reactor Concept

Page Last Reviewed/Updated Friday, September 24, 2021