The Enrico Fermi Atomic Power Plant (Fermi 1) was the brainchild of Walker L. Cisler, who in 1951 became president and general manager, and later CEO and chair of the board of Detroit Edison. Nuclear energy had caught Cisler’s attention in 1947 when he joined an AEC advisory committee on how to make connections with private industry. In December 1951, Cisler presented to the AEC a Dow-

Detroit Edison study, one of four industry studies that found that "atomic energy had an important potential for power production even if reactors were not yet economical for that purpose alone."27

In 1952, Cisler assumed the leadership responsibilities for organizing electric utilities to develop the Enrico Fermi Breeder Reactor Project. The project was formally organized in 1955 as the Power Reactor Development Company (PRDC) with 34 companies participating. In January 1956, PRDC applied to the AEC for a construction permit to build the reactor on the shore of Lake Erie at Lagoona Beach (near Newport, 30 miles from Detroit), Michigan. The construction permit was granted on August 4, 1956, groundbreaking took place four days later, and the pouring of concrete began in December 1956.28

In terms of core size and power, the Fermi 1 reactor was the largest fast-neutron reactor built up to the time. Criticality was achieved on August 23, 1963. The 200 MWt (66 MWe) sodium-cooled HEU-fueled power reactor differed from EBR — II in that it was based on a loop design in which the liquid sodium primary coolant transfers its heat to secondary sodium in an external intermediate heat exchanger.29

In October 1966, a blockage of the flow of sodium through part of the core caused a partial core meltdown. The accident was attributed to a zirconium plate that had become unfastened and obstructed the sodium flow into a fuel assembly. Two of the 105 fuel assemblies melted during the incident, but no contamination was recorded outside the containment vessel. This accident inspired the book, We Almost Lost Detroit.30

Damage to the reactor and fuel assemblies took approximately four years to repair. In May 1970, the reactor was ready to resume operation, but a sodium explosion delayed startup until July. In October, the reactor finally reached a power level of 200 MWt. During 1971, it only generated 19.4 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity, however, corresponding to an average capacity factor of 3.4 percent. The PRDC therefore declined to purchase additional uranium fuel to continue plant operation. In August of 1972, upon denial of the extension of its operating license, shutdown of the plant was initiated. Operation ended on September 22, 1972. The decision to decommission the plant was made November 27, 1972. It was officially decommissioned on December 31, 1975.