First of a breed: The Vallecitos boiling water reactor in Pleasanton, Calif., became the first nuclear generating station to be privately owned.

The same technology was adapted to produce electricity. That endeavor, too, was landmarked by ASME. The Vallecitos boiling water reactor in Pleasanton, Calif., the first privately owned, nuclear-fueled generating station to contribute electricity to the grid, went online in 1957 and operated until 1963. In 1958, the Shippingport Nuclear Power Station in Pennsylvania became, according to ASME, "the first commercial central electric-generating station in the United States to use nuclear energy."