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Experimental Breeder Reactor No. 1
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Experimental Breeder Reactor Number 1 in Idaho, the first power reactor.
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Location	Butte County, Idaho, US
Nearest city	Arco, Idaho
Coordinates	43°30′41″N 113°00′23″W / 43.51132°N 113.0064°W / 43.51132; -113.0064Coordinates: 43°30′41″N 113°00′23″W / 43.51132°N 113.0064°W / 43.51132; -113.0064
Built	1950
Architect	Atomic Energy Commission
NRHP reference #	66000307
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966[1]
Designated NHL	December 21, 1965[2]

Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) is a decommissioned research reactor and U.S. National Historic Landmark located in the desert about 18 miles (29 km) southeast of Arco, Idaho. It was the world's first breeder reactor.^[3] At 1:50 p.m. on December 20, 1951, it became one of the world's first electricity-generating nuclear power plants when it produced sufficient electricity to illuminate four 200-watt light bulbs.^[4][5] Electricity had earlier been generated by a nuclear reactor on September 3, 1948 at the X-10 Graphite Reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.^[6] EBR-I subsequently generated sufficient electricity to power its building, and continued to be used for experimental purposes until it was decommissioned in 1964. The museum is open for visitors from late May until early September.

History

As part of the National Reactor Testing Station (since 2005 Idaho National Laboratory), EBR-I's construction started in late 1949. The reactor was designed and constructed by a team led by Walter Zinn at the Argonne National Laboratory ^[7] Idaho site, known as Argonne-West. In its early stages, the reactor plant was referred to as Chicago Pile 4 (CP-4) and Zinn's Infernal Pile.^[8] Installation of the reactor at EBR-I took place in early 1951 (the first reactor in Idaho) and it began power operation on August 24, 1951. On December 20 of that year, atomic energy was successfully harvested at EBR-1 for the first time. The following day, the reactor produced enough power to light the whole building. The power plant produced 200 kW of electricity out of 1.4 MW of heat generated by the reactor.^[9]

Part of the core after the 1955 partial meltdown

The design purpose of EBR-I was not to produce electricity but instead to validate nuclear physics theory which suggested that a breeder reactor should be possible. In 1953, experiments revealed the reactor was producing additional fuel during fission, thus confirming the hypothesis. On November 29, 1955, the reactor at EBR-I suffered a partial meltdown during a coolant flow test. The flow test was trying to determine the cause of unexpected reactor responses to changes in coolant flow. It was subsequently repaired for further experiments, which determined that thermal expansion of the fuel rods and the thick plates supporting the fuel rods was the cause of the unexpected reactor response.^[10]

Although EBR-I produced the first electricity available in-house, a nearby experimental boiling water reactor plant called BORAX-III (also designed, built, and operated by Argonne National Laboratory) was connected to external loads, powering the nearby city of Arco, Idaho in 1955, the first time a city had been powered solely by nuclear power.^[11]

Besides generating the world's first electricity from atomic energy, EBR-I was also the world's first breeder reactor and the first to use plutonium fuel to generate electricity (see also the Clementine nuclear reactor). EBR-1's initial purpose was to prove Enrico Fermi's fuel breeding principle, a principle that showed a nuclear reactor producing more fuel atoms than consumed. Along with generating electricity, EBR-1 would also prove this principle.^[12]

Decommission and legacy

EBR-I was deactivated by Argonne in 1964 and replaced with a new reactor, Experimental Breeder Reactor II.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965^[2][13] with its dedication ceremony held on August 25, 1966, led by President Lyndon Johnson and Glenn T. Seaborg.^[14] It was also declared an IEEE Milestone in 2004.^[15]

Gallery

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  Plaques at the EBR-I site
  

  
  

  
  


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  Assembly of the EBR-1 core in 1951
  

  
  

  
  

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  The first production of usable nuclear electricity occurred on December 20, 1951, when four light bulbs were lit with electricity generated from the EBR-1 reactor
  

  
  

  
  


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  The reactor is in the building at center, the two structures lower left are reactors from the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Project
  

  
  

  
  


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  View of EBR-1, as seen from the parking lot
  

  
  

  
  

See also

• Argonne National Laboratory


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  Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, 5MWe, the first nuclear reactor to supply electricity to a power grid.


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  Calder Hall, England, the first nuclear power station to deliver power in commercial quantities.


• Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Project


• Idaho National Laboratory


• List of National Historic Landmarks in Idaho


• National Register of Historic Places listings in Butte County, Idaho

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Experimental Breeder Reactor I.

• Official website


• 
  "Reactor Makes Electricity". Popular Mechanics. 97 (3): 105. March 1952.
  


• 
  "Nuclear Pioneers: Creation of the Experimental Breeder Reactor 1" on YouTube "How the reactor was developed through interviews with the original researchers". Idaho National Lab (INL). April 13, 2011. Missing or empty |url= (help)