If you want to surprise somebody who lives in or near the nation’s capitol, tell them there is a retired nuclear power plant only 18 miles south of the White House. Most people, I think you’ll fine, don’t know anything about it. The SM-1 Nuclear Reactor at Fort Belvoir was built by the Army in 1957 and became the first nuclear facility in the country, civilian or military, to provide power to a commercial grid. It was a milestone in nuclear technology that in its day signaled the future of a new and promising source of power.