Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory is a U.S. Government-owned, contractor-operated research and development facility located in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. It solely focuses on the design and development of nuclear power for the U.S. Navy.
The laboratory, founded in 1949 and consisting of approximately 207 acres[1], is operated for the Department of Energy (DOE) by Bechtel Bettis, Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bechtel Corporation. Bechtel won the contract to run the laboratory in 1999; prior to that the plant was operated by Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
The laboratory's work is part of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, which is a joint U.S Navy-DOE program responsible for the research, design, construction, operation and maintenance of U.S. nuclear-powered warships.
The laboratory developed Oak Ridge National Laboratory's original design of the pressurized water reactor (PWR) for operational naval use. It built the nuclear propulsion plants for the first U.S. nuclear submarines and surface ships including the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the USS George Washington (SSBN-598), the USS Long Beach (CGN-9), and the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) .[2]
Westinghouse's Nuclear Power Division adapted the PWR design for commercial use and built the first commercial nuclear power plant in the United States, the Shippingport Power Plant.[3]
The laboratory has two computers listed on the 26th TOP500 List (November 2005) of supercomputers in the world. Ranked 97 is a 1,090 processor Opteron system and ranked 405 is a 536 processor Itanium 2 system.[4]
The laboratory is also home to the U.S. Navy's Bettis Reactor Engineering School. The school provides a post-graduate degree program in Nuclear Engineering with a focus on nuclear reactor design, construction, and operations.[5][6]
The laboratory had been chosen to develop the Prometheus nuclear power source for the JIMO (Jupiter Icy Moon Orbiter) project, however, funding for this program was cancelled in the fall of 2005.
[edit] References
- EPA (2005). Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory (PDF). Region 3 GPRA Baseline RCRA Corrective Action Facility. Retrieved on 2005-12-29.
- IEEE (1971). John W. Simpson. IEEE History Center. Retrieved on 2005-12-29.
- GlobalSecurity.org (2005). Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory. Weapons of Mass Destruction. Retrieved on 2005-12-29.
- TOP500 (2005). DOE/Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory. TOP500 Supercomuter Sites. Retrieved on 2005-12-29.
- FAS (N/A). Naval Reactors (NR): A Potential Model for Improved Personnel Management in the Department of Energy (DOE). Retrieved on 2005-12-29.
- U.S. Navy (2005). Nuclear: Officer: Careers & Jobs: Navy. Navy Careers & Jobs. Retrieved on 2005-12-29.
