The Pathfinder Atomic Power Plant was a nuclear power plant built by Northern States Power Company. It was located just northeast of

Sioux Falls, South Dakota Sioux Falls () is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the 130th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha County and also extends into Lincoln County to the south, which continues up ...

, and west of its suburb of

Brandon Brandon may refer to: Names and people *Brandon (given name), a male given name *Brandon (surname), a surname with several different origins Places Australia *Brandon, a farm and 19th century homestead in Seaham, New South Wales *Brandon, Q ...

. It was named for the 19th century explorer John C. "Pathfinder" Fremont and was constructed in the mid-1960s in partnership with a group of other investor-owned utilities. The main goal of this facility was to be a 'proof of concept' plant to gain practical experience in operating a nuclear plant. Some of the other participating utilities would also go on to build their own plants. Although the superheater developed by

Allis-Chalmers Allis-Chalmers was a U.S. manufacturer of machinery for various industries. Its business lines included agricultural equipment, construction equipment, power generation and power transmission equipment, and machinery for use in industrial set ...

was plagued with technical difficulties and which led to NSP's eventual decision to retire the reactor by 1967 (and convert the plant to run on gas and oil by 1968), the lessons NSP learned from Pathfinder served the company in its operation of the Prairie Island and

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...

nuclear plants. The longest Pathfinder ever ran at its full rated power was 30 minutes, and it was only then the company found the flaws that led to the decision to retire the reactor. After sitting idle for 23 years, the reactor vessel was removed from the plant in 1990 and transported to a low-level radioactive material dump in Washington. Pathfinder would continue as an oil- or gas-fired peaking plant until it was retired in the early 2000s after its cooling tower collapsed in July 2000.https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/complex/pathfinder.html Pathfinder, retrieved 2010 Aug 03 In 1994 the Angus C. Anson Generating Station was built at the same site. Its namesake was NSP's South Dakota division manager Angus C. Anson (1954–1993), who was killed in the plane crash that also killed South Dakota governor George S. Mickelson.

References

External links

Pathfinder
on http://www.nukeworker.com/ NSP: An Illustrated History of Northern States Power Company (NSP, 1999) {{U.S. Nuclear Plants Energy infrastructure completed in 1966 Former nuclear power stations in the United States Buildings and structures in Sioux Falls, South Dakota Buildings and structures in Minnehaha County, South Dakota Nuclear power plants in South Dakota 1966 establishments in South Dakota 1967 disestablishments in South Dakota

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