Fiendish Nuclear Quiz

Q3. What was the first thing ever powered by nuclear-supplied electricity?

Unlucky! It was a lightbulb!

In 1948, scientist Logan Emlet powered a toy steam engine with the waste heat of a research reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The engine was used to drive a dynamo, which in turn lit a small lightbulb. On December 20th, 1951 EBR-1, the first reactor to be designed to produce electric power, lit a string of four lightbulbs and was then used to power the entirety of the building that housed it.