The U.S. was more reluctant to go full-speed on its commercial atomic program than it was on the military one. Russia had opened up its single-reactor nuclear power in 1954, near their capitol, and for the moment both plant and city still stood. Stateside, The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) finally began to issue construction permits for large power reactors in New York and Chicago. Private interests, however, were unwilling to wait that long, and did not need AEC approval to start work on their own reactors.

On this day, June 28, in 1956 the first nuclear reactor built solely for private industrial research began operations in Chicago, Illinois. The 50kW research reactor was designed and built on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology by Atomics International for the Armour Research Foundation.

That same year the naval reactor program, a joint venture between the AEC and the Department of Defense, developed a series of nuclear power plants for use in naval vessels from submarines to aircraft carriers. The first submarine had already been built, and a second one, the U.S.S. Seawolf, was nearing completion.