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Shown here in December of 1961 is the world’s first Atomic Powered Buoy being lowed into the water at the Curtis Bay Coast Guard Yard in Maryland. The buoy was made by Marietta Corp. under the auspices of the Atomic Energy Commission for the United States Coast Guard. It was powered by a SNAP-7A Generator that was supposed to have a life of ten years with no maintenance. SNAP stood for Systems for Nuclear Atomic Power. According the press releases of the time, the buoy’s lighting system was run by a nuclear generator fueled with strontium-90. The generator converted the heat energy of the fuel to electrical energy which was used to recharge the battery. The atomic buoy was used in Baltimore Harbor until 1966 when it was quietly removed in 1966 after reports indicated the nuclear generator failed to keep the buoy lighted. The Coast Guard said it was a dismal failure.
Nuclear power was tried at the Baltimore Harbor Lighthouse in 1964 but it also failed to produce good results and was discontinued and removed from the lighthouse. In the 1970s the Canadian Coast Guard tried to use atomic power for buoys, and they also eventually scrapped them. Russia also used nuclear power at a number of its remote lighthouses that are now abandoned.
This story appeared in the
Jul/Aug 2014 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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