and 373 K, which results in far less capacity. To improve this, water-cooled reactors normally operate under high pressure in order to increase the boiling point. Sodium designs can run at atmospheric pressure, offering a safety advantage. Offsetting this is that sodium is highly reactive chemically, and will burst into flame in contact with water or oxygen. The breeder concept dominated early nuclear thinking as it offered a way to produce almost unlimited amounts of fuel from what was otherwise an undesirable waste product. The bred plutonium could be used to fuel the breeder, with enough left over to run other conventional reactors as well. A breeder produced money not only through selling electricity, but also through fuel sales. This was so interesting to the nascent nuclear industry that the first power-producing reactor was a breeder, the Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) at what is today known as the Idaho National Laboratory. On 20 December 1951 it produced enough electrical energy to power a series of light bulbs. Commercial development Walker Lee Cisler was appointed to president of Detroit Edison in December 1951. Just prior, he had delivered a report to the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) which suggested that nuclear energy would be practical for commercial power companies and could lead to an entirely new way of meeting future power needs. Cisler's report centered on the fast breeder, stating that "The breeder reactor would continuously produce amounts of fissionable material in excess of that consumed. Thus breeder reactors would augment rather than consume the world's supply of fissionable materials." Cisler proposed a design cycle for a commercial breeder in a partnership between Detroit Edison and Dow Chemical. The AEC approved the concept on 19 December 1951. This was only one day before EPR-1 began initial operations. Over the next year, Cisler formed the Nuclear Power Development Department within Detroit Edison, and brought in fifteen other utility companies and suppliers, including Consolidated Edison and Philadelphia Electric. The combined group formed the Atomic Power Development Associates (APDA). The AEC gave the organization the go-ahead for detailed design on 19 October 1952. Development proceeded slowly until President Eisenhower signed the Atomic Energy Act in August 1954, which allowed private companies to own nuclear plants. Further support for the project came when Lewis Strauss was appointed to chair the AEC. Strauss was very interested in seeing commercial development, and strongly supported both