Fairbanks Morse Engine's role in Nuclear Standby Power dates to the earliest development of commercial nuclear power in the United States. After World War II Admiral Hyman Rickover and the US Navy were the principal promoters of nuclear power for both ship and shore power. From the time it was introduced in the late 1930s, the Fairbanks Morse OP engine was an integral part of the Navy's program for surface ship and submarine propulsion. By the late 1940s, Fairbanks Morse had a decade of experience working within the Navy's highly constrained technical design and qualification procedures. Fairbanks Morse had earned the Navy's trust and the OP engine became the preferred choice for nuclear standby power for the early generation nuclear power plants built during the 1960s.
During the 1970s and 1980s the size of the plants being constructed grew into the 1000MW range and the industry needed a larger engine to handle the increasingly larger safety loads of these giant second generation power plants. The Fairbanks Morse Colt-Pielstick PC2 series of engines was the answer.
Today, Fairbanks Morse Engine remains a cornerstone of the nuclear industry with dozens of engines providing critical nuclear standby power in nuclear plants in the United States, Brazil and Canada. Almost one third of all U.S. plants rely on OP, PC2 or FM ALCO engines for nuclear standby power. Fairbanks Morse Engine is poised to offer the next generation of nuclear power plants the same quality, reliability, and parts and service support that the first and second generation still demands and enjoys.
