LivingOurDream: Experimental Breeder Reactor-1

Saturday, July 1, 2017

Experimental Breeder Reactor-1

GEEK ALERT-GEEK ALERT

Hi All,

On our way back from Craters of the Moon we stopped at Experimental Breeder Reactor-1. "Experimental" since it was the first reactor to generate significant electricity and "breeder" since it could create more fissionable material than it used to make electricity. The main reactor used Uranium-235. The much more common Uranium-238 was not suitable for reactors but if you put some around the U-235 core, the neutron flux was strong enough to turn some of the U-238 into Plutonium-239. Plutonium is fissionable, i.e. Good for bombs and reactors but sadly it is also the most toxic substance known. Still, EBR-1 was primarily a very successful physics experiment.

This window looks into the hot cell where fuel cores were manipulated and inspected.

The window is 34 sheets of lead glass separated by mineral oil to improve clarity. Only the bright light from the cell phone creates internal reflections to make the individual glass panels visible.

The control room is full of early 1950's vintage instrumentation. This is one of four panels.

It's only a sign but it highlights an important part of the reactor design. Modern reactors use water for coolant. To keep the water from boiling, it must be kept under tremendous pressure.

An alternative, used here is to cool the core with liquid metal. A mixture of Sodium(chemical symbol Na) and Potassium (chemical symbol K) had a much higher boiling point. Unfortunately both Sodium and Potassium react violently with water hence the sign.

Reactor heat was user to create steam that drove the turbine on the right, which spun the generator.

The result was electricity created by atomic power. On December 20, 1951 four bulbs like this were illuminated. Soon thereafter the entire building was similarly powered.