Why was windpower invented?

Answer 1

The first large nuclear reactors in the world were invented to produce plutonium for the atomic bombs in WW2. They were not power plants, the heat was considered waste and was just dumped into the Columbia River in the Hanford Site in Washington.

Shortly after the war work was begun on Boiling Water Reactors explicitly for the production of electricity. These were used in power plants, submarines, ships, etc. when they became available.

About 1948 concern developed about continued uranium supplies in the "free world" (this was before the discovery of Canada's large deposits) and the idea of a Fast Neutron Breeder Reactor (which could make more plutonium than it burned of uranium) developed. EBR-1 was built in 1949 to 1951 and in 1951 became the first reactor of any kind that could be could be considered a power plant, when it generated enough electricity to light a bank of 4 large lightbulbs, then the next day 200KW to run every light in the building.

The BORAX-III Boiling Water Reactor (near EBR-1) became the first real nuclear power plant in 1955 when it became the sole source of electricity to the nearby town of Arco, Idaho.

Answer 2

It was easy to capture with a big fan and free.