experimental breeder reactor i (ebr i)

Pushing limits and forcing change. Nuclear energy development roared onto the scene in the mid-1940s. So, while some were out “cutting a rug,” engineers were splitting atoms to find new ways to generate clean and efficient energy.

The production of atomic energy has come a long way since then, and is now one of the most reliable energy sources in America.

But how did it all start?

Let’s take a look back at the world’s first nuclear power plant located in Idaho’s vast desert landscape.

Here are 9 notable facts about Experimental Breeder Reactor-I (EBR-I), the power plant that pioneered nuclear development:

1.  EBR-I was a liquid metal-cooled fast reactor designed to demonstrate that it could create more fuel than it consumed. Not only do liquid metal coolants like sodium – or the sodium-potassium alloy used in EBR-I – transfer heat better than the light-water reactors in the current fleet, but they also have a more sustainable fuel cycle over a longer period of time.

2. On December 20, 1951, EBR-I became the first power plant to produce usable electricity through atomic fission. It powered four 200-watt lightbulbs and eventually generated enough electricity to light the entire facility.

3.  While EBR-I is known as the first to produce usable electricity, other reactors built on its success. In 1954, Russia’s Obninsk APS-1 provided 5 megawatts of electricity to the power grid. Back in Idaho, Borax-III, a boiling water reactor plant, generated enough electricity to power the small nearby town of Arco in 1955.

4.  During a coolant flow test, EBR-I suffered an unexpected partial core meltdown. This event allowed scientists to better understand the thermal capacity of the materials used for testing. The experimentation heavily contributed to the advancement of nuclear technology.

5. EBR-I is in the running to become a LEGO minifigure . The campaign only needs 10,000 votes to reach its goal. The two-level model will provide an up-close look at the ins and outs of this national historic landmark.

You can show your support for the product idea.

6.  EBR-I is the only test reactor featured in a music video. It was the backdrop for the song, “Clean Power Forever,” featuring Eric Meyer and filmed during one the Energy Department’s Millennial Nuclear Caucuses.

7.  In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson declared EBR-I a National Historic Landmark.

8.  Two aircraft nuclear propulsion prototypes rest in the parking lot of the EBR-I facility. The plan was to develop a jet engine powered by the heat produced through nuclear fission to remain in flight for extended periods of time.

9.  It’s the first nuclear power plant museum. The Experimental Breeder Reactor-I Atomic Museum  offers free guided tours. It’s an experience like no other. It’s open seven days a week, Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. Visiting hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

To stay up to date on all the latest developments in nuclear energy, follow us on Facebook and Twitter .

Check out upcoming  Millennial Nuclear Caucus events.

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Inside EBR-I: How a group of scientists changed the world and brought a U.S. president to eastern Idaho

Nate Eaton, EastIdahoNews.com

EDITOR’S NOTE: EastIdahoNews.com is working with the Idaho National Laboratory this year to celebrate its 75th anniversary. Each month, we’ll publish stories highlighting the history, achievements and trials of the U.S. Department of Energy’s desert site. We’ll explore the INL’s influence on eastern Idaho, and its day-to-day impact on local people.

IDAHO FALLS — It was Aug. 26, 1966, and President Lyndon Johnson was in Butte County.

Standing in front of 15,000 people, Johnson, the only United States president who has visited INL, designated the Experimental Breeder Reactor I a national historic landmark.

“On this very spot, the United States produced the world’s first electricity from nuclear energy,” Johnson said. “We have come to a place today where hope was born that man would do more with his discovery than unleash destruction in its wake. This energy is to propel the machines of progress.”

Nearly 60 years later, people are still fascinated by what happened at EBR-I. Last year, over 15,000 visitors from all over the world walked through the building.

“Scientists came here, built this facility and did two primary things: breed a new kind of nuclear fuel in the form of plutonium and create the first usable amounts of electricity from atomic power,” says INL tour guide Liza Raley.

The discovery

On a cold winter day in 1951, Walter Zinn and a group of scientists met in a small nuclear reactor 50 miles west of Idaho Falls to conduct an experiment.

They had started working on the reactor two years earlier, and Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union were at their height. The Soviets believed everything the United States did with nuclear power was about weapons, but Zinn and his team were about to prove them wrong.

On Dec. 20, 1951, the group lit up four light bulbs using electricity generated from the reactor. The next day, they lit up the entire building.

“It was a big deal,” Jess Gehin, associate lab director for nuclear science, tells EastIdahoNews.com. “I’ve got a copy at home of the New York Times, and it was on the front page with the information they could share. It was still sensitive information, but it was a huge breakthrough in just a short period of time.”

This breakthrough meant atomic energy could be used beyond war and in everyday situations. Those at EBR-I that day wrote their names on a chalkboard, which still hangs in place today.

“It was huge. It was the first reactor for the national reactor test site that ultimately tested 52 reactors in range and designs,” Gehin explains. “The only reactors operating before that were the Manhattan Project reactors and a few small experimental reactors.”

The scientists continued to work on EBR-I and made advancements in technology. Four years later, in 1955, electricity from the BORAX-III reactor, about a half a mile away, was used to light the entire city of Arco.

RELATED | We are East Idaho: Arco

“The east Idaho desert is the birthplace of nuclear energy – the cleanest, safest carbon-free energy available,” Raley says. “It all started here in the backyard of east Idaho in 892 square miles of the Idaho desert.”

EBR-I was operational until 1964 when it was shut down. Johnson visited two years later, and the reactor has been open for tours ever since.

“We have people on staff to make sure it stays preserved so when you come here, you get to see the way it was,” Raley explains.

That includes the original handwriting on bricks from scientists hard at work, a hot cell, where testing was done on material, and a control panel complete with buttons, gauges and levers.

“The control panel is not too different from what you’ll find in a reactor today operating all over the U.S.” says project researcher Jon Grams. “This reactor is incredibly historic. It’s the first reactor to actually produce usable power, it’s the first breeder reactor, and it really was the starting point for experimental reactors here at the lab.”

EBR-I is open Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend, seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and tours are free. The public is invited to visit and interns are on hand to answer questions.

“You definitely need to come out here. It’s an amazing place,” Grams says.

Brought to you by Idaho National Laboratory . Battelle Energy Alliance manages INL for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy. INL is the nation’s center for nuclear energy research and development, celebrating 75 years of scientific innovations in 2024.

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#39 Experimental Breeder Reactor I

World's first nuclear power plant to demonstrate the breeder concept

On December 20, 1951, engineers and scientists at EBR-1 watched a string of four light bulbs spring to life. For the first time in history, electricity had been made with nuclear energy at the world's first nuclear power plant. EBR-1 ultimately achieved a more important milestone, the demonstration of the breeder concept in 1953, by producing more fuel than it consumed while generating electrical power. Much of the knowledge on which current and future nuclear reactors depend, particularly breeder reactors, can be attributed to EBR-1's eleven-year operation. The reactor was decommissioned and decontaminated in June of 1975.

Walter H. Zinn, the first director of Argonne National Laboratory, was responsible for the basic design. With the support of Enrico Fermi, Zinn completed his plans by 1945 for a small-scale proof-test facility for validating the breeding principle and for evaluating the feasibility of using a liquid metal as a coolant. Construction began in 1949.

Landmark Location

Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Arco, ID

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Argonne National Laboratory

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EBR-I Atomic Museum

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Have you ever seen a nuclear reactor? Ever wonder how electricity is generated from nuclear energy? Satisfy your curiosity by visiting the Experimental Breeder Reactor-I (EBR-I) Atomic Museum, located on Highway 20-26 between Idaho Falls and Arco. The facility, a National Historic Landmark where usable electricity was first generated from nuclear energy in 1951, is open to the public. You’ll see four nuclear reactors, including two aircraft nuclear propulsion prototypes, a reactor control room, remote handling devices for radioactive materials, and radiation detection equipment. Learn how electricity is produced from splitting atoms and see numerous explanatory displays and exhibits.

Things to Know

• Self-guided and guided tours available depending on the season.
• Please call or visit the website to confirm hours of operation and fees.

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Experimental Breeder Reactors I and II

Ashwin kumar february 14, 2017, submitted as coursework for ph241 , stanford university, winter 2017.

The Experimental Breeder Reactor Number 1, also known as EBR-I (see Fig. 1), was created shortly following World War II, with its construction beginning in 1949. Construction was completed surprisingly quickly, with the plant beginning power operation on August 24, 1951. On December 20, 1951, atomic energy was finally successfully harvested at this plant. While the plant did successfully produce power, this was not its main purpose. The plant was originally built in order to validate a nuclear physics theory that a breeder reactor should be possible. [1] This theory was validated in 1953, when scientists confirmed that the reactor was producing fuel through a fission process. EBR-I was significant not only because it was the world's first plant to generate electricity from atomic energy, but also because it was the first to use plutonium fuel to generate electricity. EBR-I was finally deactivated in 1964, at which point plans had been put into place for it to be replaced by EBR-II.

The Experimental Breeder Reactor Number 2 (EBR-II) was created to replace EBR-I in the mid 1960s. The initial purpose of EBR-II was "to demonstrate a complete breeder-reactor power plant with on-site reprocessing of metallic fuel". [2] Once this experiment was successfully completed, researchers repurposed the reactor to experiment with alternate fuels, materials, and reactor components. Over the course of 30 years, in addition to being a research site for nuclear scientists, the reactor produced over two billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.

Safety Features of EBR-II

EBR-II was also designed with state-of-the-art safety facilities. In a 1986 experiment, scientists tested these features. They first ran the reactor at full capacity, and manually turned off the automatic emergency response systems. Then, they cut the electricity supply, which caused the cooling pumps to fail. This situation is actually worse than what happened in the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, in which the automatic emergency response system was able to turn off the reactor prior to the reactor's losing power. Luckily, EBR-II was able to respond more positively, in which the reactor was automatically shut down by a sensor that determined the temperature was getting dangerously high, and released a large pool of sodium to flood the reactor. [2] The sodium took so long to heat up that it was able to prevent the reactor from a complete meltdown.

© Ashwin Kumar. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.

[2] C. Westfall, " Vision and Reality: The EBR-II Story ," Nuclear News 47 , No. 2, 25 (February 2004).

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Experimental Breeder Reactor (EBR-I)

On December 20, 1951, a marvel of modern science quietly came to pass in the eastern Idaho desert. As a select group of engineers gazed upon a string of four large glowing bulbs ignited by the power of nuclear reaction, relief washed over them. At last their project worked, their theory was confirmed. Electricity produced with nuclear power became a reality at their small Idahoan facility, EBR-I, and the world would never be the same.

The story of EBR-I begins on the periodic table with enormous machines called “atom smashers.” Scientists used these devices in the 1930s to fire neutrons into various elements, among them uranium. It was discovered that some uranium atoms fission, or break apart. This fission produced additional neutrons and resulted in a chain reaction that would cause more atoms to fission. The extraordinary pace of these reactions and the energy released led to the creation of the first atomic bomb.

Yet scientists believed that nuclear technology could be utilized for peaceful purposes as well. In early 1939, theoretically, steam produced by nuclear heat could turn a turbine to propel a ship or submarine or spin a generator to produce electricity. However, since at that time it was assumed that uranium was extremely rare, any use outside of weaponry had to be highly efficient. In 1946, after the Second World War, a proposal by physicist Walter Zinn to help solve the uranium shortage was approved by a top U. S. Military official.

Zinn became the first director of Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, dedicated to the development of nuclear reactors. His proposal was to build a reactor that would produce, or breed, plutonium, another atomic fuel, while generating electricity. His project would have to wait a few years, but once the civilian Atomic Energy Commission approved, it was clear the city of Chicago was not the place for this type of nuclear experiment. Instead, Zinn’s project needed to take place in a more remote location.

This location was the high desert plains west of Idaho Falls, sparsely populated but populated enough to provide the basics of civilization. The decision was made February 18, 1949, and a section of the vast desert became the National Reactor Testing Station. It was nearly built in Montana near Fort Peck, but that site proved too isolated to provide support to such a technology-intensive project. In early 1949, with enthusiastic support from nearby communities, construction began on the first Experimental Breeder Reactor, EBR-I, at a vacated naval repair and test site. While the reactor housing building was being built, the Korean War broke out in 1950, increasing the urgency of the need for military uranium. An exceptionally cold winter at the end of that year delayed construction on EBR-I as war raged on the other side of the world. By April 1951, the building was finished and the reactor, designed and assembled by Argonne in Chicago, was installed.

At the time, nuclear fuel needed to be “borrowed” by the AEC from the military. The first attempt to activate EBR-I was unsuccessful; it was decided that there was insufficient fuel in the core to reach the critical mass needed for the material to fission. Additional fuel was ordered and at a later test date on August 24, 1951, EBR-I went critical, the first reactor to use enriched U-235 fuel. It was also the first to use a liquid-metal coolant made of sodium (Na) and potassium (K) that was known as NaK. Yet this was not the last breakthrough for the experimental reactor. On December 20, 1951, EBR-I produced enough electricity to light a string of four 200-watt light bulbs by converting the heat produced by nuclear reaction into steam, running a turbine. The next day, power output from the reactor was increased to 100 kilowatts, enough to power the building it was housed in.

Indeed, nuclear power was a reality. But the question remained as to whether plutonium had been produced. In 1953, technicians at EBR-I took samples from around the reactor’s core. Analysis at a laboratory in Chicago revealed that fissionable plutonium was produced from non-fissionable uranium, thereby breeding fuel in the process of burning fuel. During its years of operation, the ratio of new fuel being bred by the reactor went from an initial 1.01 or one percent more fuel bred than consumed up to 1.27 or a notable twenty-seven percent more fuel produced than used. EBR-I succeeded in everything it had set out to do, setting a precedent for future research.

Yet EBR-I still had some additional firsts to add to the field of nuclear science. In 1955, the concept of a new, larger breeder reactor was in the works. Consequently, further tests at EBR-I were run to enhance the design of the new facility which would be called EBR-II. In one of these experiments, the NaK coolant was blocked and automatic safety backups were deactivated in an effort to gauge the effects of high temperatures on the reactivity of the core. The necessary manual reactor scram was delayed slightly too long and the reactor reached temperatures exceeding the melting point of the fuel rods. Although there was no visual or auditory evidence of failure, temporarily elevated radioactivity levels in the control room did cause a personnel evacuation of the building. The damaged core itself needed to be replaced and by carefully examining the approximately 12 inch tall fuel assembly many lessons were learned.

Thus, EBR-I also produced the first unintended nuclear meltdown in America’s history, and provided valuable information to design future reactors. In 1963, the reactor used plutonium to produce a fission chain reaction, another first for the small reactor. Later that year EBR-I was shut down, being too small to provide new data and it stopped producing power. In 1964, the reactor was decommissioned, being replaced by the more advanced version of itself, EBR-II, which operated from 1964-1994. Realizing the valuable contribution made to human understanding of nuclear power, on August 26, 1966, EBR-I was designated as a National Historical Landmark in a ceremony marked with a visit and speech by President Lyndon Johnson.

Bibliography

• “Experimental Breeder Reactor #1 National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form.” United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Form dated 12 June 1976.
• Holl, Jack M. “The National Reactor Testing Station: The Atomic Energy Commission in Idaho, 1949-1962.” Pacific Northwest Quarterly 85 1 (1994): 15-24.
• “Idaho Reactor Generates Electric Power for First Time.” The Post Register, 30 December 1951, A-1.
• Michal, Rick. “Fifty Years Ago in December: Atomic reactor EBR-I produced first electricity.” Nuclear News 44 12 (2001): 28-29.
• Michal, Rick. Interview of Leonard Koch. “Koch: Remembering the EBR-I.” Nuclear News 44 12 (2001): 30-35.
• “Nuclear Pioneers.” 27 minute video, Atomic Heritage Foundation, Argonne Information and Publishing Division, 2003. < https://inlportal.inl.gov/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=4403&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=3&mode=2&in_hi_userid=200&cached=true >.
• Stacy, Susan. Proving the Principle, A History of The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory 1949-1999. Idaho Operations Office of the Department of Energy, 2000.

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The legacy of Experimental Breeder Reactor-I

"At 1:23 p.m. load dissipaters from the generator were connected—electricity flows from atomic energy.” These were the words Walter Zinn wrote in the log after the first four light bulbs were illuminated by nuclear energy. The year was 1951, and the EBR-­I was about to show the world what nuclear energy had to offer.

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Milestones : Experimental Breeder Reactor I, 1951

• 2 Street address(es) and GPS coordinates
• 3 Details of the physical location of the plaque
• 4 How the intended plaque site is protected/secured
• 5 Historic Significance
• 6 Supporting Materials
• 7 Significant References
• 8 National Historic Landmark plaque photos

At this facility on 20 December 1951 electricity was first generated from the heat produced by a sustained nuclear reaction providing steam to a turbine generator. This event inaugurated the nuclear power industry in the United States. On 4 June 1953 EBR-I provided the first proof of "breeding" capability, producing one atom of nuclear fuel for each atom burned, and later produced electricity using a plutonium core reactor.

Street address(es) and GPS coordinates

Experimental Breeder Reactor-I (EBR-I) Atomic Museum National Historic Landmark building (GPS: 43.511944, -113.005), located 50 miles west of Idaho Falls and 18 miles east of Arco, and accessible from US Highways 20/26. The museum is operated by Idaho National Laboratory (INL), 1955 Fremont Ave, Idaho Falls, ID 83415 US.

Details of the physical location of the plaque

Inside the EBR-I Museum building near the front door. The Museum is open 7 days/week, 9am-5pm MDT, from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. Virtual tour information is at https://inl.gov/tours/

How the intended plaque site is protected/secured

The site is staffed by tour guides during open hours, and is locked and secured otherwise.

Historic Significance

The idea for a breeder reactor (a reactor that could produce more fuel than it uses) first occurred to scientists working on the nation's wartime atomic energy program in the early 1940s. Experimental evidence indicated that the breeding of nuclear fuel was possible in a properly designed reactor, but time and resources were not then available to pursue the idea.

After World War II, the newly established Atomic Energy Commission (now the Department of Energy) assigned some of the nation's nuclear skills and resources to developing peaceful uses of the atom. The large bodies of uranium ore found in the 1950s were unknown then, and, since uranium was in very short supply, it was decided that the first power reactor would attempt to prove the theory of fuel breeding.

EBR-I construction began in late 1949 at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho, now called the Idaho a National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). Early in 1951, a few months before the EBR-I building was completed, nine staff members from the Atomic Energy Commission's Argonne National Laboratory arrived on the scene to install the reactor, which they had designed at their lab near Chicago. The first attempt to operate the new reactor, in May of that year, was not successful. It was determined that there was not enough fuel in the core. Acquiring additional uranium and fabricating slightly larger fuel rods took nearly three months. Then on August 24, Walter Zinn and his Argonne staff brought EBR-I to criticality (a controlled, self- sustaining chain reaction) with a core about the size of a football. Four months of low power operation followed while the operators studied their new creation.

On December 20, 1951, the first historic experiment at EBR-I began. The reactor was started up and the power gradually increased over several hours. At 1:50 p.m., the first usable amount of electricity ever generated from nuclear power began flowing from the turbine generator. Four light bulbs glowed brightly to inaugurate the birth of nuclear-generated power. The next day, the experiment was repeated, and sufficient electricity to power the EBR-I building was generated.

EBR-I's real mission was not to show that electricity could be generated by a nuclear reactor - scientists already knew that a reactor was a kind of furnace. Splitting atoms inside the core produces heat. Heat can be used to turn water into steam, to drive a turbine and generate electricity, just as a coal- or oil fired electrical plant does. Therefore, EBR-I's chief task was to determine whether scientists' theoretical calculations on fuel breeding would actually be achieved that more nuclear fuel could be created in a reactor than was consumed during the operation.

Less that a year after EBR-I generated its first electricity, Argonne scientists calculated that their reactor could indeed breed fuel. Then, early in 1953, a painstaking laboratory analysis showed that EBR-I was creating one new atom of nuclear fuel for each atom it burned. The hoped-for result was a reality.

With this kind of encouragement, Argonne scientist began to design cores that would increase the breeding ratio so the reactor could not only sustain its own operation but also produce a little more to fuel other reactors. Three such improved cores were developed over the next ten years. The last of them - called Mark IV - produced 1.27 new atoms of fuel for each atom consumed. EBR-I was used for research purposes until 1964, when the reactor was decommissioned. Argonne built a new reactor - EBR-II - at the INEEL and operated it from 1964 to 1994.

Source: Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

Supporting Materials

• Story about Milestone Dedication
• Slide deck from Milestone Dedication
• EBR-I Visitors brochure

Significant References

• Garner, Graham, “INEEL prepares to celebrate reactor anniversary”, Idaho State Journal , December 14, 2001
• Hogerton, John F.; Pittman, Frank K.; Zinn, Walter H., Nuclear Power , U.S.A., McGraw-Hill, New York, 1964
• Holl, Jack M., "The National Reactor Testing Station: The Atomic Energy Commission in Idaho, 1949-1962", Pacific Northwest Quarterly , Volume 85, No. 1, January, 1994
• “INEEL celebrates nuclear reactor’s 50th anniversary”, Idaho State Journal , December 19, 2001
• Jones, Emily, “ ‘Nuclear Pioneers’ documents history of breeder project: Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory made history with first plutonium-fueled reactor”, Idaho State Journal , September 29, 2002
• Parmet, Herbert S., Eisenhower and the American Crusades , Macmillan Co., New York, 1972
• Seaborg, Glenn T., Speeches, Nuclear Milestones, Volume One: Builders & Discoverers , U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Division of Technical Information, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, May, 1971
• Stacy, Susan M., Proving the Principle, A History of The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory 1949-1999 , Idaho Operations Office of the Department of Energy, Idaho Falls, Idaho, 2000
• Yeates, John A., Interview, AEC and Phillips Petroleum (retired), Idaho Falls, Idaho, March 7, 2001

National Historic Landmark plaque photos

Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Dr. Glenn Seaborg and President Lyndon B. Johnson at the designation of EBR-I as a National Historic Landmark on August 26, 1966

EBR-I National Historic Landmark plaque

• Nuclear and plasma sciences
• Reactor instrumentation

Experimental Breeder Reactor-I

The world's first nuclear power plant is open to visitors looking to role-play a meltdown. .

The Behind-the-Scenes Story of an Unplanned Meltdown at America’s First Nuclear Power Reactor

For better or worse, nuclear power plants can be found the world over. But they all got their start from Idaho ’s Experimental Breeder Reactor No. 1 (EBR-I), the world’s very first atomic power plant, which is now a nuclear museum where anyone can simply waltz in and see the inner workings of splitting atoms. 

EBR-I first powered up in 1951 to provide juice to four symbolic lightbulbs in a test to see whether usable electricity could actually be culled from a nuclear reaction. The experiment was a success, and the facility went on to power its whole building with nothing but its toaster-sized nuclear core. With the breeder reactor (a type that produces more fuel than it uses) a proven concept, it was only a few years before working nuclear reactors began popping up around the world.

The EBR-I continued to burn until 1964, never acting as a public plant but instead as a test bed for experimenting with the new energy source. When the site was decommissioned it was turned into a museum devoted, essentially, to itself, and the history of nuclear energy in general. Visitors can step inside the control room with its banks of strange vintage buttons and dials that once could have caused a national disaster, and get up close with the turbines that once ran off the steam of giant fuel rods.  

The museum provides the rare opportunity for the public to visit not just a historic facility, but a space that is generally kept off-limits for obvious reasons.

Know Before You Go

The Breeder Reactor-I is open from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. Seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Community Contributors

• j jennifer 9034e241

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_I
• http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_I,_1951
• http://www4vip.inl.gov/ebr/

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Experimental Breeder Reactor I, Idaho

HTRE-3 (Nuclear Powered Jet Engine) at the EBR-1 Visitor Center

There is a small museum and visitor center devoted to the world's first working nuclear power plant on a desolate Idaho plain 18 miles from the nearest town (Arco). Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-1) is about 40 miles from Craters of the Moon National Monument and about 50 miles from Mackay. Its remote location keeps visitor traffic to a minium. The reactor and museum are on the grounds of the Idaho National Laboratory and not far from large, currently used research facilities. The museum is free and open from 9 to 5, Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. It is a National Historic Landmark.

EBR-1 was started on December 20, 1951, initially producing enough electricity to illuminate four 200 watt light bulbs, making it the first nuclear reactor to produce electricity. EBR-1 suffered a partial melt-down in 1955. EBR-1 is housed inside the museum and not pictured here. The reactor pictured above is a experimental nuclear powered jet engine. Several prototype reactors were built from 1951-61 as a part of a program to develop a nuclear powered aircraft. No working aircraft was ever produced by this project. The HTRE-1 and HTRE-3 reactors from the aircraft project are outside in the open air, in front of the EBR-1 visitor center. These are the only nuclear powered jet engines in the world.

Experimental Breeder Reactor I, Museum and Visitor Center

The BORAX 1-5 nuclear reactors were built in the 1950s and early 60s at the Idaho National Laboratory after EBR-1. These reactors utilized steam driven turbines to produce electricity. BORAX II powered the nearby town of Arco briefly in 1955. Signs in Arco proclaim that it was the first town powered by nuclear energy.

The EBR-1 museum is small but interesting. Visitors can walk around the reactor control room and see many artifacts from the early nuclear age. I was most impressed with the nuclear powered jet engines however which I think are accessible year round.

EBR-1 Museum website.

HTRE-1 at the EBR-1 Visitor Center

HTRE-3 at the EBR-1 Visitor Center

EBR-1 Visitor Center

HTRE-1 and HTRE-3 at the EBR-1 Visitor Center

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Experimental Breeder Reactor I

In the 1950's an attempt was made to build atomic powered bombers that could remain aloft for extended periods, before ballistic missiles were perfected. They were so big that they would have required a 10 mile runway (hence the eastern Idaho location). The pilots would have received a fairly large dose of radiation, because good shielding would have been too heavy to fly, and there were the obvious safety problems with airborne reactors.

In 1955, at this site in Idaho, the X-39 was run on a ground test stand in what was called the Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment No. l (HTRE-l). Engineers tested a complete aircraft power plant consisting of a reactor, a radiation shield, two X-39 engines, ducting, control parts and instrumentation; the whole assembly was called a core test facility because it was designed for the insertion of different reactor cores as they were developed. In January 1956, the engines were operated successfully but, because there had been no attempt to restrict the weight of the shielding, they would not have been flyable. Later in 1957, other cores that were tested, HTRE-2 and -3, did reduce the weight somewhat. The HTRE-3 assembly produced enough thrust to theoretically sustain a flight at 460 mph for about 30,000 miles. However radiation levels were still a problem; at one point in the tests, controls failed and released enough radioactivity to contaminate 1,500 acres.

What You'll See

The two X-39 atomic aircraft engines are on display. EBR-I is the first atomic reactor to generate electricity.

Public Tours Dates and Times

The engines are on display next to EBR-1 and can be seen at anytime. EBR-1 was the first atomic reactor in the world to generate usable amounts of electricity. The historic accomplishment took place on December 20, 1951. Today, EBR-1 is a Registered National Historic Landmark, open daily to the general public from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day each year and by appointment the rest of the year. Hours of operation are 9am to 5pm. All tour members must be at least 16 years old and a U.S. citizen.

How to Get There

EBR-1 is located 18 miles southeast of Arco, Idaho on highway 26, or 50 miles west of Idaho Falls on highway 20. The facility is about 2 miles south of the highway. For more information call the Public Affairs Office at (208) 526-0050 or (800) 708-2680 .

Experimental Breeder Reactor I – The World’s First Nuclear Power Plant

The first four light bulbs lit with electricity generated from the EBR-1 reactor

On December 20 , 1951 ,  Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) became the world’s first electricity-generating nuclear power plant when it produced sufficient electricity to illuminate four 200-watt light bulbs .

From Manhattan Project to Atomic Energy Commission

The reactor is located in the the state of Idaho between the Idaho Falls and Arco. The construction was designed by Walter Zinn and Enrico Fermi at the Argonne National Laboratory.[ 5 ] The famous Italian physicist Fermi became next to his achievements on the projects, known for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics. On 2 December 1942 at 15:25 at the University of Chicago with the Chicago Pile No. 1 nuclear reactor he succeeded for the first time in carrying out a critical nuclear fission chain reaction, an achievement based on the theoretical preliminary work of Leó Szilárd .[ 7 ] The Argonne National Laboratory was the first of the national laboratories established by the Manhattan Project and there, Fermi was able to continue his work on experimental physics and investigated neutron scattering. When the Manhattan Project was replaced by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1947, they accepted the power plant project and two years later, construction work in the the semidesert of Idaho began.

Nuclear Power Generation

The project’s objective was the demonstration of power generation and further nuclear research. The reactor’s core was able to be replaced and the coolant circuit as well as the primary and secondary circuit were powered by a liquid sodium-potassium alloy (NaK). The secondary circuit would transfer its energy in a heat exchanger into a water-steam-circuit that was finally able to power a combination of a generator and a turbine.

Going “Online”

In August 1951, a first attempt failed because the reactor failed to provide the critical mass. However, the core was reconstructed and in December of the same year, a small amount of electric energy was ‘produced’. On day one, the energy lasted for only four light bulbs, but after a few days the reactor was able to provide the power for several research projects. The until then only theoretically assumed breeding process was achieved in 1953 for the first time.

Experimental Breeder Reactor I. Core after the 1955 incident.

From Production, over Partial Meltdown to Closing Down the Reactor

During its overall runtime, the reactors core was changed four times. The first consisted of only 52 kg of highly enriched uranium in a very dense construction for the time. The nuclear fuel for the next two was enriched uranium combined with 2% zirconium . During the operation of the second core, a partial meltdown occurred in 1955, but its effects were limited to the core itself. The last was called Mark IV and was installed in 1962. It consisted of plutonium and was therefore globally the first reactor, ‘producing’ electrical energy from fission of plutonium and that produced more fuel atoms than consumed. The reactor was closed in 1964 and replaced by the Experimental Breeding Reactor II . Shortly after, the area was announced a National Historic Landmark and can be visited during the summer by the general public.

References and Further Reading:

• [1] Argonne National Laboratory EBR-1
• [2] Page about EBR-1 at INL web sit e
• [3] Official Website
• [4] Windscale – A Nuclear Desaster , SciHi Blog
• [5] The First Self-Sustained Nuclear Chain Reaction , SciHi Blog
• [6] EBR-I at Wikidata
• [7]  Leo Szilard and the Atomic Bomb , SciHi Blog
• [8]  Dr. Brian Sherron,  Nuclear Accidents: Lessons Learned , NCASVideo @ youtube
• [9]  “Reactor Makes Electricity” .   Popular Mechanics .   97   (3): 105. March 1952.
• [10] Map with Nuclear and Radiation Accidents , via Wikidata

Tabea Tietz

Related posts, edward condon – pioneer in quantum mechanics – scihi blog, emilio segrè and the discovery of the antiproton, otto frisch and the idea of nuclear fission, alfred nier – a pioneer in mass spectroscopy, leave a reply cancel reply.

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