Despite the commercial failure of Fermi 1, the U. S. Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR) development effort picked up momentum in the 1960s, aiming for commercialization of the breeder before the end of the century.31 In its 1962 Report to the President on Civilian Nuclear Power, the AEC specifically recommended that future government programs include vigorous development and timely introduction of the breeder reactors, which the Commission believed essential to long-term use of nuclear energy on a large scale.32 By 1967, the LMFBR was the AEC’s largest civilian power development program.33 The Commission’s program began to embrace efforts to build an industrial base and obtain acceptance of the LMFBR by utilities, primarily through planned government-subsidized construction of commercial-scale LMFBR power plants.34 The Commission came to see its program "as the key to effecting the transition of the fast breeder program from the technology development stage to the point of large-scale commercial utilization."35

In furtherance of these objectives, the Commission, in 1968, issued a 10-volume LMFBR Program Plan prepared by ANL. The dual objectives of the plan were to:

1. Achieve, through research and development, the necessary technology; and,

2. "(A)ssure maximum development and use of a competitive, self-sustaining industrial LMFBR capability."36

The aim was to develop an economically viable, commercial-scale LMFBR by the mid-1980s.37 In a 1969 cost-benefit study of the breeder program prepared by the AEC, the LMFBR commercial introduction date was assumed to be 1984.38

With growing concern about a possible energy crisis, rapid commercial implementation of LMFBR technology had become a national mission.39 It would remain AEC’s highest priority development program until 1977, when President Jimmy Carter sought to cancel the Demonstration CRBR project; and it remained a high priority program until 1983 when the CRBR project was terminated by Congress.

In the style of President Kennedy’s 1960 commitment to put an American on the moon by the end of the decade, President Nixon, in his June 4, 1971 Energy Message to Congress, announced as the highest priority item of his energy program "(a) commitment to complete the successful demonstration of the LMFBR by 1980."40 This goal was endorsed by Congress’ Joint Committee on Atomic Energy.41