In keeping with March being the National Women’s History Month, GTTSi presents this article, written and posted in the New York Times on May 31, 1976. 

Roberta Kankus clipped on identification badges and radiation indicators, unlocked doors and walked into a huge room where generators and turbines roared. She was careful to walk around one generator.

“The guys are changing back there,” she explained. “They really get upset if I walk through.”

She unlocked another door and led visitors into a 100-foot-long room that contained the controls for two 1,000‐megawatt nuclear reactors in the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station here. She seemed totally at ease among the consoles, gauges, recorders, valves, switches, red and green light bulbs, flashing messages, buzzers and bells.

Several times a week, and often on weekends, Miss Kankus operates this power plant, which is owned by the Philadelphia Electric Company,

‘On the Reactor’

Three operators, licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, must be in this room at all times. One must be a senior operator and Miss Kankus, who is 23 years old, is one of them. She is the first woman to be licensed by the commission.

When she is “on the reactor,” Miss Kankus is in control of the plant and responsible for the health and safety of its 200 workers.

Although she was not now on duty, her eyes constantly swept the controls. One reactor was operating silently, the other was being refueled. Other operators sat nearby, answering signals, pushing controls and joking with Miss Kankus, whom they called Robbie.

“Some guys accepted me as soon as I showed them I was not going to put curtains in the control room or scream and cry when something went wrong,” she said. “But others will never accept me, because they believe the control room is no place for a woman.”

Her license was issued recently by the commission after she had passed three days of rigorous tests, which included a six — hour walkthrough at the Peach Bottom plant. It is on the Susquehanna River, about 60 miles southwest of Philadelphia.