Because of all the problems and all the work A-C took on itself the construction of Pathfinder was very protracted. The proposal was floated for this plant in May 1957, with construction beginning two years later. We see how long it took to get testing done and finally decide to kill the project by the information in the article above.

Allis-Chalmers, frankly, was in way over its head with the Pathfinder station. The original contract for what would become Pathfinder specified superheated steam, in order to keep complexity of the turbine equipment to a minimum, and as a result said contract specified a boiling water reactor producing saturated steam which then would have been superheated by either a coal-fired or else an oil-fired superheater. (ConEd’s Indian Point 1 nuclear plant used an oil fired superheater; Rural Co-Op’s Elk River nuclear plant used a coal fired superheater.) However, Allis-Chalmers decided to go for broke and convert the reactor design to include superheating elements in the core in a two-pass arrangement, with forced water recirculation. The many problems this introduces are too numerous to explain here, but A-C was definitely challenged beyond its capacity to cope by the design … as well as by the fact that it decided to act as architect-engineer for the whole power station, a giant job best handled either by major experienced constructors (Bechtel, Burns & Roe) or else very large utilities with vast experience (Detroit Edison.) In the end, it was too much.

You can still see where the reactor building was at the plant. The building is gone, but there’s a circular concrete pad right where it sat.

Actually, they decrease the breeze. Energy in the wind is proportional to the velocity to the third power, extract some energy and it must slow down. Not much written on what affect it will have on climate.