Vallecitos Nuclear Center, California

Located near Sunol, California, the Vallecitos Nuclear Center was intended primarily as a training facility for future nuclear power plant workers, as well as a laboratory in which different reactor designs, fuel, components, etc., could be tested. The Atomic Energy Commission granted the Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor, located there, Power Reactor License # 1. The reactor was in service from 1957 until its closure in 1963, and was owned and operated by General Electric in conjunction with Pacific Gas & Electric. Although its 5MW output capacity made it less than full-scale, nevertheless, it is considered to have been the first investor-owned nuclear power plant to have supplied a public electric grid with a significant amount of electricity. Currently the reactor is in SAFSTOR mode, with all spent fuel having been removed from the site. The Center still operates a laboratory and a small 100kw nuclear test reactor on site, and generates radioactive material for use in medicine and industry. The site is operated by Hitachi, and a few other tech companies.