MH-1A
| MH-1A | |
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MH-1A in 1967
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 Location of MH-1A
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| Country | United States of America |
| Coordinates | 37°7′53.1618″N 76°38′51.2124″W / 37.131433833°N 76.647559000°WCoordinates: 37°7′53.1618″N 76°38′51.2124″W / 37.131433833°N 76.647559000°W |
| Status | Decommissioned |
| Construction began | August 1961 |
| Decommission date | March 27, 2014 |
| Construction cost | $17,200,000 |
| Nuclear power station | |
| Reactor type | PWR |
| Fuel type | enriched uranium |
MH-1A was the first floating nuclear power station. Named Sturgis after General Samuel D. Sturgis, Jr., this pressurized water reactor built in a converted Liberty ship was part of a series of reactors in the US Army Nuclear Power Program, which aimed to develop small nuclear reactors to generate electrical and space-heating energy primarily at remote, relatively inaccessible sites. Its designation stood for mobile, high power. After its first criticality in 1967, MH-1A was towed to the Panama Canal Zone that it supplied with 10 MW of electricity from October 1968 to 1975. Its dismantling was started in 2014 and it is anticipated to be completed in under four years.
The MH-1A was designed as a towed craft because it was expected to stay anchored for most of its life, making it uneconomical to keep the ship's own propulsion system.
It contained a single-loop pressurized water reactor, in a 350-ton containment vessel, using low enriched uranium (4% to 7% 235U) as fuel.
The MH-1A had an elaborate analog-computer-powered simulator installed at Fort Belvoir. The MH-1A simulator was obtained by Memphis State University Center for Nuclear Studies in the early 1980s, but was never restored or returned to operational service. Its fate is unknown after the Center for Nuclear Studies closed.
The reactor was built for the U.S. Army by Martin Marietta under a $17,200,000 contract (August 1961), with construction starting in 1963. The reactor was built in Sturgis, a converted Liberty ship formerly known as SS Charles H. Cugle.
Sturgis (named after General Samuel D. Sturgis, Jr.) was hull number 3145, and not as sometimes supposed SS William Sturgis, another liberty ship (hull number 800, scrapped in 1969).
Fort Belvoir, Virginia, was the headquarters of the Army Corps of Engineers and, beginning in 1954, the corps' newly created Army Reactors Branch. This unit was established by the Department of Defense to develop compact nuclear power plants that could be utilized to supply heat and power at remote locations. The army's first nuclear power reactor, the SM-1, was built at Fort Belvoir in 1955–57, and was located in the southeast "corner" of the post, alongside Gunston Cove, off the Potomac River. The SM-1 reactor, also known as the Army Package Reactor Program, was used to train nuclear operations personnel for all three services. For that reason, the MH-1A was installed and tested aboard the Sturgis while it was moored in Gunston Cove, near the SM-1 facility.
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