Featured Underway on Nuclear Power

Babcock & Wilcox Medal

It’s been awhile since I’ve purchased a piece for my “Nuclear Navy” collection, but this Babcock & Wilcox medal arrived this weekend and is now the newest addition to the group. This medal appears to be made of brass, and is approximately 38 millimeters in diameter. The medal is definitely not in perfect condition, since it exhibits wear and a couple of rim nicks, suggesting that this may have been a Babcock & Wilcox employee’s pocket piece.







Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) was founded in 1867 for the purpose of making boilers. B&W made boilers for a wide variety of applications, including power generation, locomotives, and naval propulsion. B&W proved to be incredibly proficient boilermakers, and during World War II, B&W manufactured over 4,000 boilers to support the US Navy and Merchant Marine.

Since B&W wielded such dominance over the boiler market, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that they played a significant role in the development of nuclear power. In 1953, B&W established an Atomic Energy Division in Barberton, Ohio to consolidate their work in the nuclear power industry. In the 1950s, B&W supplied components for the USS Nautilus, the very first nuclear powered vessel.

In May 1956, B&W opened a nuclear facilities plant in Lynchburg, Virginia. According to B&W’s website, this facility was dedicated to the fabrication of nuclear fuel elements. This medal was evidently commissioned to commemorate the opening of the Lynchburg location. The obverse features the traditional B&W aeolipile logo with orbiting electrons superimposed over it, creating an image reminiscent of Niels Bohr’s model of the atom. The reverse features an image of a building at the new Lynchburg facility.

B&W’s involvement in nuclear power definitely did not end with the USS Nautilus, and the company continued to be involved in the commercial nuclear and naval nuclear industries. In fact, B&W got to be part of some other nuclear power “firsts.” B&W manufactured components for the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the first civilian nuclear power plant, and designed and built the nuclear reactor for the NS Savannah, the first nuclear powered commercial ship.




Component for Shippingport Atomic Power Station (Credit: Babcock & Wilcox).




NS Savannah, the first nuclear powered commercial ship (Credit: Wikipedia).

 

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Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - Joint Meritorious Unit Award (2)
Second Row - Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation (2) - Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation - Navy Battle "E" Ribbon (5)
Third Row - Navy Expeditionary Medal - National Defense Service Medal (2) - Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
Fourth Row - Vietnam Service Medal (8) - Southwest Asia Service Medal (1) - Humanitarian Service Medal
Fifth Row - Sea Service Deployment Ribbon (9) - Coast Guard Special Operations Service Ribbon - Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation
Fifth Row - Republic of Vietnam Civil Action 1st Class Unit Citation - Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal - Kuwait Liberation Medal (Kuwait)

CGN-25 Challenge Coin

 

B & W's world headquarters used to be a stone's throw away from me in Barberton, OH, and recently they moved to Akron. The Barberton facility is still there, plus they have one practically down the street from me in Copley. I used to work in that building when they leased it out to the company I was working for at the time. They have several facilities around here! Thanks for this post.

 

As you can probably tell from my user name, spent a few years at the sub base in Groton. Cool place, incredible history.

Great post! Piece of American History, always a bonus when collecting anything!

 

Small world, I’m also in the Northeast Ohio area! B&W split into two separate companies 5-6 years ago, and both still have presences in the area. As you mentioned, one of them has a location in Copley and is headquartered in the old Goodyear building, and the other has a plant in Barberton and another up by Cleveland. It’s nice to see this kind of manufacturing here in Ohio.

 

I'm in Copley but was born and raised in Canton. I also spent a few years in Cambridge when I got my first job out of technical school.

 

One of my mother's sisters married a guy from Akron. That uncle told me all his female older relatives got jobs during WW2 at that old Goodyear plant when they got the contract to build the Corsair fighter/bombers. All these decades later, the only 'Airworthy' Corsair left appeared in the movie "Thunder Over Reno" and is now housed at Thaden Airfield in Bentonville, Arkansas.

F2G1 Navy Corsair built by Goodyear in Akron

 

My dad worked at that Goodyear Aircraft plant in the late 50's/early 60's, that's the plant where the big aircraft hangar was where they used to house the blimp.