It would have been powered by six double-ended coal boilers with oil burners alongside.
A deal struck in early 2011 will result in both coal boilers being shut down by 2025.
In 1951 the coal boilers were replaced with petroleum-fueled ones.
The coal boilers at more than a dozen other schools have already been taken out of service, school officials said.
Zimmer's new coal boiler will produce steam that is hotter and under higher pressure than what comes out of a reactor.
The primary difference between the three types of pulverized coal boilers are the operating temperatures and pressures.
So for about the same money it would have taken to finish the reactor, they are grafting on a coal boiler of much larger capacity.
Efficient coal boilers make steam hotter and under more pressure than reactors do.
Its coal boilers were complemented with diesel generators in 1924.
Water was heated by a coal boiler, which had to be lit and stoked on match days.