June 21, 2024
We left this morning planning on a sightseeing trip to EBR-1. It took about 45 minutes from the campground and we arrived right as they were starting a tour. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and explained everything very well. It was interesting that on our tour we also had a nuclear scientist and the son of one of the men who worked on EBR-1.
EBR-1 was designed with two purposes: to generate electricity and more importantly to prove the concept of breeding fuel, which means that a reactor creates more nuclear fuel than it consumes, all while making electricity. On December 20, 1951, EBR-1 became the first nuclear reactor to produce usable amounts of electricity by splitting atoms, lighting four 200 watt light bulbs. The following day the reactor produced enough power to light the whole building. Arco, Idaho was the first city in the United States to be powered by nuclear power. The reactor operated for 12 years before being shut down in December 1963. President Lyndon B. Johnson dedicated EBR-1 as a Registered National Historic Landmark in 1966. There was an EBR-2 built but later decommissioned.
Control room panels
The names of the men present when the reactor first supplied the electricity in the building. Later on the women were recognized.
Of the four light bulbs originally powered the one on the right is an original. One went to Lyndon Johnson and is now in the presidential library in Austin, and the other two have been lost to history.
This is how a nuclear reactor works. This I understand. Most of the rest of it is above my pay grade.
Nuclear reactor.
After World War II the world wanted to see what could be powered by nuclear power. They planned to make a nuclear powered airplane, but it never got off the ground. :-) Looking at what was going to go on/in it I can see why.
This was the second time we've been to EBR-1 but it's been a long time and I've forgotten a lot so it was a nice refresher course.
Although we had no plans to go to Craters of the Moon when we got up this morning that's where we ended up. I mentioned to John that it was about 20 minutes from Arco and we decided to go. This was our third trip to the park. The first time in 1997 we camped there in a tent and the second time I think was in the early 2000s where we just visited. A lot has changed over the years. The first time we went the campground was all dirt and cinder gravel, the trails were all cinder gravel, and you could go down into the caves. Now everything is paved, the campground roads and sites, the trails, and you have to have a permit to go into the caves.
Looking down into Snow Cone vent. That's snow in the bottom.
It's an amazing sight out there in the desert. There were many trails to go on but it was 86 degrees. Since we've been there before we didn't do as much this time.
We stopped on the way back to get fuel. Tomorrow we will be...
Roving on...
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth".
Genesis 1:1
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