B Reactor can take a tour of the reactor by advance reservation. The reactor was designed and built by E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company based on experimental designs tested by Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago, and tests from the X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It was designed to operate at 250 megawatts (thermal). The reactor occupies a footprint of (about and is tall, occupying a volume of . The reactor core itself consisted of a graphite box measuring occupying a volume of and weighing . It was penetrated horizontally through its entire length by
Nuclear reactor 8 December 1953. This diplomacy led to the dissemination of reactor technology to U.S. institutions and worldwide. The first nuclear power plant built for civil purposes was the AM-1 Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, launched on 27 June 1954 in the Soviet Union. It produced around 5 MW (electrical). After World War II, the U.S. military sought other uses for nuclear reactor technology. Research by the Army and the Air Force never came to fruition; however, the U.S. Navy succeeded when they steamed the USS "Nautilus" (SSN-571) on nuclear power 17 January 1955. The first commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall