Energy · 1960
Boiling water reactor
Water boils in the core and drives the turbine directly.
Dresden Unit 1 in Illinois, a 200 MW General Electric BWR, began operating in 1960. The simpler single-loop design became the second most common reactor type, used widely in the US and Japan.
What it built on 1
Related measurements
The dashed line marks when it first worked.
Nuclear electricity generation Latest: 2.81k TWh (2025) Source: Our World in Data
Share of electricity from low-carbon sources Latest: 42.6 % (2025) Source: Our World in Data