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Argonne National Laboratory was assigned by the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) the lead role in developing commercial nuclear energy beginning in the 1940s. . Between then and the turn of the 21st century, Argonne designed, built, and operated fourteen reactors [21] at its site southwest of Chicago, and another fourteen reactors [21] at the National Reactors Testing Station in Idaho.
This was the first disaster in civilian nuclear power plants. By the Three Mile disaster, "China syndrome" became a vogue word, anti-nuclear movements occurred in the United States. Following the Three Mile Island accident, changing economics, increasing regulation, and public opposition many planned nuclear power projects were canceled.
It led to the building of larger single-purpose production reactors, such as the X-10 Pile, for the production of weapons-grade plutonium for use in the first nuclear weapons. The United States tested the first nuclear weapon in July 1945, the Trinity test, with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki taking place one month later.
The United States is one of the five nuclear weapons states with a declared nuclear arsenal under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), of which it was an original drafter and signatory on 1 July 1968 (ratified 5 March 1970). All signatories of the NPT agreed to refrain from aiding in nuclear weapons proliferation to ...
Map of nuclear-armed states of the world NPT -designated nuclear weapon states (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States) Other states with nuclear weapons (India, North Korea, Pakistan) Other states presumed to have nuclear weapons (Israel) NATO or CSTO member nuclear weapons sharing states (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey, Belarus) States formerly possessing nuclear ...
Nuclear power's contribution to global energy production was about 4% in 2023. This is a little more than wind power, which provided 3.5% of global energy in 2023. [167] Nuclear power's share of global electricity production has fallen from 16.5% in 1997, in large part because the economics of nuclear power have become more difficult. [168]
Trinity, part of Project Manhattan, was the first ever nuclear explosion. The nuclear weapons tests of the United States were performed from 1945 to 1992 as part of the nuclear arms race. The United States conducted around 1,054 nuclear tests by official count, including 216 atmospheric, underwater, and space tests.
Globally, there have been at least 99 (civilian and military) recorded nuclear reactor accidents from 1952 to 2009 (defined as incidents that either resulted in the loss of human life or more than US$50,000 of property damage, the amount the US federal government uses to define major energy accidents that must be reported), totaling US$20.5 billion in property damages.