Arco/BORAX Mobile Substation [14]

Scan of a photo:"This is the way the 16 scientists, engineers, and assistants who participated in the first known production of useful electric power from atomic energy recorded the event. The writing is on the wall of the power plant room of the new Experimental Reactor building of the Atomic Energy Commission's National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho. It reads: "Electricity was first generated here from atomic energy on December 20, 1951. On December 21, 1951, all of the electrical power in this building was supplied from atomic energy." Heading the first column of the names is W.H. Zinn, Director of the Atomic Energy Commission's Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, Illinois, whose scientists and engineers designed the reactor power plant and are in charge of its operation. Dr. Zinn closely supervised the project. Also listed is: H.V. Lichtenberger, Argonne engineer in charge of the installation at the Testing Station. The others are: M. C. R. Gibson, L. J. Koch, G. K. Whitham, M. L. King, M. Wilkey, G. H. Stonehocker, K. Johnson, and D. F. McGinnis. The principal function of the breeder reactor is the long range goal of converting non-fissionable material into fissionable material more rapidly than nuclear fuel is consumed. The small and uneconomic power generation is incidental, but is being carried out to secure information on the handling of liquid metal at high temperature under radioactive conditions and on the extraction of heat from the reactor in a useful manner."