My grandfather was Earl J. Barrow and he was proud to work there. And my father, Robert Riordan, worked at the INL for 40 years.

If you happen to be in the area, the reactor is still open to the public, and the tour is very interesting and informative. I visited last summer (2017) when I was staying at the nearby Craters of the Moon national monument, and it was my favourite part of the trip. 10/10 would visit again.

On November 29, 1955, the reactor at EBR-I suffered a partial meltdown during a coolant flow test. Almost a first Chernobyl. The Americans have always been lucky when it comes to nuclear accidents. EBR-I used uranium metal fuel and NaK primary coolant. It was in this identical to the initial configuration of the later Dounreay Fast Reactor which first went critical in 1959. Dounreay suffered some very serious accidents and is now costing billions to clean up.

My grandfather worked on these sodium cooled reactors. He worked in the USAF and I don't know what time he did work on them. I think it might have been as a contractor but nonetheless his stories always intrigued me. Why isn't this type of nuclear power being researched even more? You have a easy to find coolant and it produces more uranium then it needs to sustain itself. These things are the future! My grandfather recently passed of cancer but we don't think it was the reactors. Probably agent orange and Willy Pete

Do visit EBR-1 if you have a chance. Fascinating place in an other-worldly location.

Definitely visit EBR-1 if you can. It's a fascinating look at a unique piece of history.

Great historic video. We need more like this...

This is an amazing reactor what a great piece of History

My grandfather was an engineer and was there watching as the tuned it on.

Thank you for the upload. Truly something everyone should see.

I have visited this place several times since its been a National Landmark. A very interesting place that you can go on your own self-guided tour, or with a group. You can also see the nuclear aircraft engines developed at the Idaho National Lab during that time frame. A must see if your in the area.

I never realized there was a partial meltdown at EBR-1.

We need more like this

EBR1 & II should have been adopted as the standard design for nuclear energy

CP-1, the reactor you refer too also had no cooling system. In Chernobyl the water boiled and that caused a steam explosion. When the coolant in a graphite moderated reactor is lost the reaction continues and continues producing very large amounts of heat, and is impossible to control or shutdown due to a high positive void coefficient. In a water moderated reactor when the water is boiled off, yes they melt down, but the reaction is slowed severely or stopped.

These days you'll get fired for "practical engineering". :(

First off, this was a research reactor. Chernobyl was a full sized commercial power plant. There is no way this reactor could ever meltdown like Chernobyl just based on the number of fuel assemblies. Second, Chernobyl uses a completely different design (RBMKs aren't even breeders, they are just poorly designed run-of-the-mill LWRs, and the only reason they produced Pu is because the fuel was U-238, not U-235 like most LWRs).

Nuclear physics and the fundamental research and development of frontiers of new era .

I was born and raised in Idaho falls and I’m embarrassed to say I was 35 years old before I visited.

Jeez Kirby Whitham sounds like a barrel of laughs...

The key in making these nuclear power plants safe Is making them small And only have enough material to run approximately five years The construction of the huge power plants is what makes these accidents so frightening. A small power plants something that would power up maybe a smaller community something that was easily take it off-line something that was easily made safe in the event of an accident is infinitely better than getting machines it’s suddenly melt down and cause havoc for thousands of people. There are hundreds of power plants working on battleships submarines aircraft carriers that are reliable easily maintained and these are under some of the most harsh conditions. They have proven to be indispensable and safe

+mohamed khorsheed what company is that with?

lets go Lance, power to knowledge

And to think, this pioneering effort has led to our current "electricity to cheap to meter"

Great minds

Rest in peace Shipmate Richard Legg.

Applying the aw shucks, seat of the pants, method to nuclear reactor development. What could go wrong? The small scale, and loose schedule of the project made this possible. The key word is ‘experimental.’

EBR-1 is open to the public in the summers, or was in 2006 when I visited. It is a great demonstration of man's ingenuity and the peaceful use of nuclear power. It is worth the drive. Make sure it is open the day you plan to visit, before you go out of your way.

This is an interesting story where the scientists were given free reign and got things done faster as a result. In addition, this is an interesting application of nuclear science. My interests switch between different sciences and I watch nuclear-related videos recently. My biggest science-related viewing relates to the whole food-plant based diet. Even though there is limited evidence due to fewer people doing this diet than just about any other, the controlled trials for heart health, high blood pressure, diabetes and several other diseases is amazing. Dean Ornish has the best studies to my knowledge, with randomization and control. It is impossible to do such a study single blind since people can see what they are eating. I also have been reading Isaac Asimov and one can find full audio books on this site if one perseveres during searching.

Thre ARE four lights!

00: 50 ..."First peaceful use of atomic energy" - no - it was for producing plutonium only. The first nuclear power plant built for civil purposes was the AM-1 Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, launched on 27 June 1954 in the Soviet Union. It produced around 5 MW.

What a great gift they have forced upon us.

A successful experiment is no accident unless someone wants it to be, Scientifically speaking. ***** Often wondered why the Engineers designed the piping to fail in a clean break shear, as well as a corrosion pinhole (?), but after seeing the consequence of ER=EPR shell-horizon envelope-shaping of shock wave modulation containment in resonances, the possibility is realistic and relevant because the Reaction operates at the Critical Point of Nuclear Resonance, Fusion-Fission of Neutronic boundaries, and that will include the composition of the constituent nuclei in the pipes etc. Conductivity of the materials subject to possible shear is required to be extensively tested?

this is awesome!

I love how everybody in the comments section has a PhD in nuclear engineering.

From what I've seen, LFTR (Liquid Fluorine Thorium Reactor) appears to be something the US has pursue! And, much of the research was already carried out back in the '60's! Check out this website to learn more: energyfromthorium What seems to be the stumbling block to this technology are the carbon and uranium cycle "merchant" interests.

Moderators slow the neutrons to increase the chance they get absorbed by the fuel element. While light water does adsorb some neutrons a reactor can't function with out a moderator. Also EBR-1 had a very tiny core, and only produced 1.4MW of heat, the RBMK reactor at Chernobyl produced 1000+ MW of heat and a core that you could park a couple trucks in. Very big difference.

70 mile round trip per day ! Holi Shit That would suck.

1:23:44 in the morning on April 26th 1986 the Chernobyl no 4 reactor was destroyed.

Awesome!

They... they kept bankers' hours?

Dr Alvin Radkowsky

yes, very

Interesting video. Describes an important aspect of the history of our attempts to use nuclear energy for peaceful means.

Scary, that the Chernobyl Reactor 4 exploded at 1:23 am in 1986. The EBR startet at 1:23 pm 1951

Yeah, but they purposefully caused it to melt down. Just to test it?

Third, they would never get the green light to do this experiment if it was a water cooled reactor. They knew a meltdown was possible, but they also knew that the NaK would never contact water. Remember, the NaK is the coolant in this design, so water and NaK would never both be used to cool the same reactor, so what you are saying is impossible.

Wicked! How to get a job? I know lotta stuff on these atoms! For real!

I just wish we could find a way to safely handle nuclear materials the trouble is once u set up a nuclear reactor somewhere that place is now a nuclear waste site for an eternity. It's such a promising technology but we must find ways to safely work with it.

Look people we don't need any fossil fuels at all not for heat not for power generation and not for powering vehicle ,I have designed a machine that only needs a water source coupled with a water pump the water is brought into the kettle steam vessel which has an electric element like an ovens there are laser designator to keep water level above the electrical element the water is brought to a boil which treats and cleans water for cooking and washing and drinking the water after boiled is and a separate cooling tank and another tank for hot water separate from the boiling kettle so the boiling is always always quick water has to be brought in at a rate not too quick that put too much cold water at one time and the boiling point will take a long time to if water goes below element ,it will burn out right away ,this is all controlled by computer and after water is boiling the steam turbine generator makes power to charge a battery pack that would hold like a week's power and as it uses power the computer makes more just to keep batteries charged up . Make the house a real smart house sensor in each room like at Walmart it'll turn lights on and off as a person enters or leaves room and computer will put power where it's needed most first for heat for water for drinking so it's boiling water what's it's biggest by product ,heat it's heat so water sent into floor pipes that flow through a closed loop system and hot water goes through warming home up and as it travels the loop and cools it goes back into kettle to be reheated ,also water for toilets will be the waste water that is collected after it goes down drain or toilet it's cleaned treated separated and heated clean enough that is used for toilets only or yardwork , you don't need to be hooked up to town water or sewage or power lines and don't need a furnace or electric hot water tank and with a closed system we could make the separated feces incinerated by machines heat , it's totally green good for our planet and every bit of technology exists now , I've designed an electrically compressed jet engine that also has a hot gaseous thrust without any jet fuel or fossil fuel at all it flies on Earth atmospherically burning engines and it can turn fuel off land vertically on ocean and ballast to submerge then taking water through compressors then around combustion chamber and out the back as directional thrust water jet as propulsion and steering sideways no problem also be the fastest underwater craft then blow ballast resurface turn furl on empty water good relight take of vertically ,then using 767emptied only railgun equipment and power for launching my craft once into orbit on same Earth engines using that ballast tank filled with compressed oxygen close air intakes feed ballast air directly into compressors then the rest runs normally as jets do the thrust though is used to steer craft and propel craft so putting my craft on top of 767 but facing backwards so when he gets as high as can my craft intakes closed facing backwards the 767 goes into a dive so my craft is now on angle facing up towards orbit then railgun is launched to 5000mph at an already very high altitude ,then kick in the engines of craft for some extra thrust then wen returning get into air open intakes then relight then return home and land vertically this is some of the designs that could fix the planets climate change ,it all exists now every bit we could build the craft isn't flown by expensively trained pilot ,the computer flies craft using two pods on on top and another on the bottom each has a vertical laser designator and a horizontal laser designator moving back and forwards up and down very fast and they have a night vision camera a regular camera radar ,sonar ,heat vision flir ,also search for electrical signals all this info is fed updated constantly and fed into a hard drive that has a library of items weather mountians ,birds ,power lines other crafts ,stuff like that then it's reproduced on a computer screen constantly updated it won't matter if dark out or raining or snowing the computer can see through it all and make a clear picture of the outside as craft flies through air it has an iPod dock that is craft control unit it's loaded with mission info and wen plugged into dock the craft comes to life it takes off vertically doesn't have ailerons or flaps or tailfins for steering the craft no you put four engines two near front on either side in ncell housings they can move about 180 each then each engine has 360 degree thrust vectoring and the two out the back turn and pivot downwards like the f35 jet does then while pionted downwards they have the 360degrew thrust vectoring this four pillars is used to take off vertical and steer craft computer controlled that makes us system operator there's way more but I'll keep that to myself for now

And stay out of the Woolworth!

Air cooled ones (plutonium breeders) are even worse :D

I love america because they preserve things very well. if this was in russia it would be derelict already

FREAKING AMAZING.....are these humans from another planet and part of a super smart race???

Experimental nuclear physics.

youre quite silly breeders are something that is needed today but unavailable because of nuclear proliferation. If they could be built and used the fuel stocks for nuclear energy production will last much longer.

I could make an ion chamber detector from the guts of a smoke detector. 🤓

Not to mention i also worked at the INL and I could throw rock out of my window and hit the silver painted containment dome for EBR-II. so it seems like a pretty stable design to me, and it was notorious for the power fluctuations.

The expedition to the kingdom of the God. The experimental nuclear physics. Exporling the limitless possibilities and the unbelievable unimaginable power in the hand of man .

I wonder how a lead cooled reactor would have reacted to such a meltdown. Defiantly wouldn't blow it's top.

Fast reactors generally a metal for a moderator and coolant and experimental reactors they use NaK which cause the fuel rods to foam like shown in the video. and water will just boil to where there is no moderation and the reaction stops. So in no way could this ever have been like Chernobyl, ever. And considering it ran for over 10 years and by itself at night I would stay it was stable. Power fluctuations like that due happen sometimes, example EBR-II did the same thing it ran for 30 years.

And you to basic reactor physics. A class I have taken and you apparently have not.like USKilop said they would have never had tried that with a water cooled. Not mention at the INL they will purposefully melt down reactors all the time in the 60's thru late 90's. This is where all research regarding meltdowns come from. And there is no way any reactor in the US could be the same as Chernobyl. Chernobyl was graphite moderated, which will not shut down my itself in the event of a loss of coolant.

They built a sodium reactor in Monju, Japan. It had a coolant leak, and they failed to design a method to remove the coolant! Radiation Brain Damage at fool speed ahead!

But they only lit 4 lightbulbs. Not very impressive for a POWER reactor.

.#zZz#.⚡⬆️⬇️💀 Я ПИСАЛ РАНЕЕ,ЧТО ПРИ /КС/ВВОДЕ КРИТИЧЕСКОЙ ГРАНИЦЫ,СИЛА ИЗЛУЧЕНИЯ ЯДЕРНОГО ЭП/ЗАРЯДА - КОДОВО/ЗАПРЕДЕЛЬНА,Т.К.РАСЩЕПЛЕНИЕ ПРОТОННО/НЕЙТРОННОГО НАЛОЖЕНИЯ /КС/СИНТЕЗА МОМЕНТА/НАБОРА - 9/9,3 БАЛЛА ПО ШКАЛЕ РИХТЕРА(2004/2011 ГОД)!.НО ВОТ,ПРИ ТУРБУЛЕНТНОМ ЗАХВАТЕ ВВОДА,КРИТИЧЕСКОЙ ГРАНИЦЫ НАБОРА,КОГДА НОСИТЕЛЬ ДЛИТЕЛЬНОЕ ВРЕМЯ ИЗЛУЧАЕТ,СИЛА ИСЧИСЛЯЕТСЯ СОТНЯМИ МЕГАТОНН/ТНТ/!.КАК МЕЛ С ДОСКИ СНОСИТ...💀⚡⚡⚡

its the grandpa from up

The Lie's OF Nuclear Power & Now Its A Nuclear END... One Way, Or The Other

Well it seemed like a good idea at the time. It wasn't and there were better answers already available. Today we have much much better ideas and technology than nuclear fission.

Experimental nuclear physics and the dawn of space age and the forthcoming our space age cosmic heritage. Our NUCLEAR power to Atomic bomb. To the power of God. The power of the INFINITE. The supreme consciousness.

The only reason to have a nuclear power program is to make nuclear weapons, it is the most expensive form of electricity generation there is. the stuff that comes out of a reactor the short life isotopes are infinitely more toxic than the u238 that goes in, they are not low carbon or carbon neutral construction mining enrichment shipment storage of waste and reprocessing. Reprocessing the nuclear fuel cycle yes you get back some u238 but the real resin is to separate pu240 from pu239 and u235 po210 and tritium for nuclear weapons you also get 1000 times more waste most of which is contaminated water that goes in to the environment discharged at sea with no regulation, nuclear power is a misdirection con job presented to a public that does not know any better or the real consequences. One last thing to consider, Regulatory lack of engineering understanding and installation cost and replacement cost, reactors lifespan 40 years it 40 years for a good reason Reactor pressure vessel embrittlement due to neutron flux BWR's operate at 600 psi PWR's at 900/1000 psi Reactor pressure vessel flex due to thermal expansion and contraction, reactor life extension is sort sited and dangerous yes it looks alright it has bean maintained regardless of cost, but the people giving the extensions do not understand the engineering implications.

isn't plutonium the most dangerous substance on the planet?

Not nuclear pioneers; nuclear pirates.

Bah, water cooled reactors suck. We only went with breeders because the defense industry wanted to make bombs out of the waste daughter products. Bring on the LFTR's already.

Nuclear is safe 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

It still kills me how ANYONE can still think any of this was or still safe of any kind!!! 😳😳🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

The people who worked in the reactor were all really creepy and strange people!