Detroit Edison Company

In 1955, an association of twenty regional power and industrial companies led by the Detroit Edison Company created a non-profit research-and-development company, the Atomic Power Development Association (APDA), to develop the initial proposal for a fast-breeder nuclear reactor in Michigan. Later in 1955, the APDA chartered the Power Reactor Development Company (PRDC) to design, construct, and operate the Enrico Fermi Atomic Power Plant, Unit I after federal approval of the APDA's proposal. Plant staffing included executives, managers, and technicians drawn from member companies with the bulk of employees transferred from Detroit Edison operations. Fermi I, built on the southwest shore of Lake Erie outside Detroit, Michigan, was one of the largest fast-breeder reactors in the world when construction was completed in 1960. The original design of the Fermi reactor allowed for power generating capabilities up to 430 megawatts although the plant never operated above 200 megawatts. As one of the earliest nuclear powered generating facilities in United States, the Fermi I plant construction and design process laid the ground work for subsequent nuclear power technology development through the 1970s. Fermi I was decommissioned in 1975.