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All the United States Idaho Arco Experimental Breeder Reactor-I

Experimental Breeder Reactor-I

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

Arco, Idaho

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kondorqueen
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EBR-I internal   Idaho National Laboratory/CC BY 2.0
The facility, a National Historic Landmark, is where usable electricity was first generated from nuclear energy in 1951   Idaho National Laboratory/CC BY 2.0
Power Plant entrance   Alan Levine/CC BY 2.0
Experimental Breeder Reactor-I   Alan Levine/CC BY 2.0
Experimental Breeder Reactor-I   Eric Swanger on Flickr
EBR, ZPR, and AFSR Are Warm   Alan Levine/CC BY 2.0
Experimental Breeder Reactor-I   Alan Levine /CC BY 2.0
Sensors   Alan Levine/CC BY 2.0
  Alan Levine/CC BY 2.0
Power icon   Alan Levine/CC BY 2.0
Reactor is reading 0.3 R /HR   Alan Levine/CC BY 2.0
Manipulator   Alan Levine/CC BY 2.0
Experimental Breeder Reactor-I   Kelly Michals/CC BY-NC 2.0
Experiments done to see if they could build a nuclear powered fighter jet.   Alan Levine/CC BY 2.0
Outside of EBR-1, Nuclear Aircraft Engine Prototypes   OliverWDahl / Atlas Obscura User
  librarianguish
Gauges   librarianguish
Tubes   librarianguish
Warning!   librarianguish
Plans and diagrams   librarianguish
Scientific history ahead!   librarianguish
Strange exterior fixtures   librarianguish
Enter if you dare!   librarianguish
Eerie green rooms   librarianguish
EBR-1   librarianguish
Outside of EBR-1, Nuclear Aircraft Engine Prototypes   OliverWDahl / Atlas Obscura User
Outside of EBR-1 on Cinestill 35mm film   OliverWDahl / Atlas Obscura User
Experimental Breeder Reactor-I   Kelly Michals on Flickr
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About

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.

Related Tags

Nuclear Power Stations Museums And Collections Museums Technology

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

Added By

kondorqueen

Edited By

Kiri the Unicorn, Mackenzie, MagnumPI, EricGrundhauser...

  • Kiri the Unicorn
  • Mackenzie
  • MagnumPI
  • EricGrundhauser
  • librarianguish
  • Meg
  • OliverWDahl

Published

March 11, 2014

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  • 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/
Experimental Breeder Reactor-I
Arco, Idaho, 83221
United States
43.5115, -113.00874

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