Commems Collection Classic: 1916-17 Mckinley Birthplace Memorial - Advertisement

Very interesting. Thank you for posting.

Piqua, Ohio, is noteworthy for the Piqua Atomic Power Station, which operated for a few years in the 1960s. This unique power plant (one of a series of demonstration plants funded by the Atomic Energy Commission in cooperation with local utilities) used an "Organic-Moderated Reactor", broadly similar to the "Pressurized Water Reactor" which is the most common technology for nuclear power plants worldwide, but using a special oil as coolant, allowing operation at a higher temperature and a much lower pressure than the PWR.

The Piqua plant is also intriguing because it was not a complete power plant. Rather, the hot oil passed through a steam generator, and the steam was piped (via a pipe bridge over the Miami River) to the existing coal-fired city power plant. Thus, the nuclear fuel directly replaced fossil fuel. This arrangement assured that, when the reactor was out of operation, the city power supply was unaffected.