Where did commercial nuclear power come from?

Much of today's fleet traces back to a triumph of engineering: the US Navy's nuclear program. After WWII, Admiral Rickover built compact, reliable reactors to power submarines, instilling a culture of discipline that produced a near-flawless safety record — and the pressurized-water reactor that now dominates the civilian fleet is its direct descendant.

It's a genuinely inspiring lineage, and a reminder of what focused engineering can achieve: thousands of reactor-years powering vessels around the globe without a single reactor accident. That heritage — captured first-hand in this archive by a former submarine engineer officer — is proof nuclear can be done superbly well.