Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Station

[2] According to several sources Yankee Rowe was the first commercial pressurized water reactor operating in the United States.

[4][5] The Dresden Generating Station, a commercial boiling water reactor (BWR), slightly preceded the opening of Yankee Rowe in 1960.

[4][6][7] US government sources place the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction at Dresden-1 on 15 October 1959 and the first one at Yankee Rowe on 19 August 1960.

When the Yankee Rowe plant was announced Admiral Hyman Rickover called him and said the "low cost figure" of $57 million was "impossible to achieve … and I hate to see you ruin your reputation."

But Nichols replied that many items were on fixed prices and many of the conventional components would be to normal utility standards to save money without sacrificing safety or reliability.

[11] During its 32-year operating history, the Yankee plant generated over 34 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, and had a lifetime capacity factor of 74%.

[citation needed] Yankee Rowe was shut down prematurely due to reactor pressure vessel embrittlement concerns.