Editing Pressurized water reactor (section)

== History ==
[[Image:ranchoseco.jpg|thumb|[[Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station|Rancho Seco]] PWR reactor hall and cooling tower (being decommissioned, 2004)]]
Several hundred PWRs are used for marine propulsion in [[aircraft carrier]]s, nuclear submarines and [[ice breaker]]s. In the US, they were originally designed at the [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]] for use as a nuclear submarine power plant with a fully operational submarine power plant located at the [[Idaho National Laboratory]]. Follow-on work was conducted by Westinghouse [[Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ornl.net/info/ornlreview/rev25-34/chapter3sb8.htm|title=Rickover: Setting the Nuclear Navy's Course|website=ORNL Review|publisher=[[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]], [[United States Department of Energy|U.S. Dept. of Energy]]|access-date=2008-05-21|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071021213713/http://www.ornl.net/info/ornlreview/rev25-34/chapter3sb8.htm|archive-date=2007-10-21}}</ref> The first purely commercial nuclear power plant at [[Shippingport Atomic Power Station]] was originally designed as a pressurized water reactor (although the first power plant connected to the grid was at [[Obninsk]], USSR),<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-o-s/russia-nuclear-fuel-cycle.aspx
 |title=Russia's Nuclear Fuel Cycle
 |author=<!--Not stated-->
 |date=May 2018
 |website= world-nuclear.org
 |publisher= [[World Nuclear Association]] 
 |access-date= 2018-09-17
 |quote= "In 1954 the world's first nuclear powered electricity generator began operation in the then closed city of Obninsk at the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (FEI or IPPE)."}}</ref> on insistence from [[Admiral]] [[Hyman G. Rickover]] that a viable commercial plant would include none of the "crazy thermodynamic cycles that everyone else wants to build".<ref>{{cite book|last=Rockwell|first=Theodore|title=The Rickover Effect|publisher=Naval Institute Press|year=1992|page=162|isbn=978-1557507020}}</ref>

The United States [[Army Nuclear Power Program]] operated pressurized water reactors from 1954 to 1974. [[Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station]] initially operated two pressurized water reactor plants, TMI-1 and TMI-2.<ref>{{harvnb|Mosey|1990|pp=69–71}}</ref> The [[Three Mile Island accident|partial meltdown of TMI-2 in 1979]] essentially ended the growth in new construction of nuclear power plants in the United States for two decades.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/GC/GC48/Documents/gc48inf-4_ftn3.pdf | title=50 Years of Nuclear Energy| publisher=[[IAEA]]| access-date=2008-12-29}}</ref> [[Watts Bar Nuclear Plant|Watts Bar]] unit 2 (a Westinghouse 4-loop PWR) came online in 2016, becoming the first new nuclear reactor in the United States since 1996.<ref>{{cite news | last=Blau| first=Max| title =First new US nuclear reactor in 20 years goes live| publisher=CNN| date =October 21, 2016 | url =https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/20/us/tennessee-nuclear-power-plant/index.html| accessdate =November 23, 2021}}</ref>

The pressurized water reactor has several new [[Generation III reactor]] evolutionary designs: the [[AP1000]], VVER-1200, ACPR1000+, APR1400, [[Hualong One]], [[IPWR-900]] and [[EPR (nuclear reactor)|EPR]]. The first AP1000 and EPR reactors were connected to the power grid in China in 2018.<ref>{{cite news | last=Proctor| first=Darrell| title =First Commercial AP1000, EPR Reactors Connected to Grid| work=Power Magazine| date =July 5, 2018 | url =https://www.powermag.com/first-commercial-ap1000-epr-reactors-connected-to-grid/| accessdate =November 23, 2021}}</ref> In 2020, [[NuScale Power]] became the first U.S. company to receive regulatory approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a [[small modular reactor]]<ref>{{cite news | last=Ridler| first=Keith| title =US gives first-ever OK for small commercial nuclear reactor| work=Associated Press| date =September 2, 2020 | url =https://apnews.com/article/technology-or-state-wire-ut-state-wire-id-state-wire-science-910766c07afd96fbe2bd875e16087464| accessdate =November 23, 2021}}</ref> with a modified PWR design.<ref>{{cite news | last=Price| first=Mike| title =A look at the NuScale small modular nuclear reactor project| work=East Idaho News| date =August 22, 2019 | url =https://www.eastidahonews.com/2019/08/a-comprehensive-look-at-the-nuscale-small-modular-reactor-project/| accessdate =November 23, 2021}}</ref> Also in 2020, the [[Energy Impact Center]] introduced the [[OPEN100]] project, which published [[open-source]] blueprints for the construction of a 100 [[Megawatt|MW]]<sub>electric</sub> nuclear power plant with a PWR design.<ref>{{cite news | last=Takahashi| first=Dean| title =Last Energy raises $3 million to fight climate change with nuclear energy| work=VentureBeat| date =February 25, 2020 | url =https://venturebeat.com/2020/02/25/last-energy-raises-3-million-to-fight-climate-change-with-nuclear-energy/| accessdate =November 23, 2021}}</ref>