We Almost Lost Detroit

{{Short description|Book by John G. Fuller}}

{{Infobox book

| italic title =

| name = We Almost Lost Detroit

| image = File:We Almost Lost Detroit.jpg

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| caption = First edition

| author = John G. Fuller

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| subject = Nuclear power plants

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| publisher = Reader's Digest Press

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| pub_date = 1975

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| isbn = 0883490706

| dewey = 621.483

| congress = TK1344.M5

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We Almost Lost Detroit, a 1975 Reader's Digest book by John G. Fuller,{{cite book

| title=We almost lost Detroit

| first=John Grant

| last=Fuller

| year=1975

| publisher=Reader's Digest Press

| pages=[https://archive.org/details/wealmostlostdetr00full/page/248 248–261]

| url=https://archive.org/details/wealmostlostdetr00full/page/248

| lccn=75017870

| isbn=0883490706

| url-access=registration

}} presents a history of Fermi 1, America's first commercial breeder reactor, with emphasis on the 1966 partial nuclear meltdown.{{cite book

| title=Nuclear America: Military and Civilian Nuclear Power in the United States, 1940–1980

| first1=Gerard H.

| last1=Clarfield

| first2=William M.

| last2=Wiecek

| year=1984

| page=469

| publisher=Harper & Row

| isbn=9780060153366}}{{cite book

| title=Nuclear Power

| first=Walter C

| last=Patterson

| publisher=Penguin Books

| year=1976

| pages=185–186

| url=http://www.waltpatterson.org/nppenguin.pdf}}

It took four years for the reactor to be repaired, and then performance was poor. In 1972, the reactor core was dismantled and the reactor was decommissioned. America's first effort at operating a full-scale breeder had failed.