Arco/BORAX Mobile Substation [14]

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Title Arco/BORAX Mobile Substation [14]
Photo Number P0206add2n01_14_012_1
Description 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."
Date 1951-12-21
Textual Date December 21, 1951
Keywords Rocky Mountain Power; Arco; Idaho; Nuclear; fission
Subject Electric generators--Idaho--Butte County--Photographs; Electric power transmission-Idaho--Butte County--Photographs; Breeder reactors--Idaho--Butte County --Photographs
Spatial Coverage Idaho National Laboratory; Butte County (Idaho)
Latitude 43.51132
Longitude -113.0064
Additional Information Utah Power & Light Company, with a mobile substation, participated in the early experiments at the National Reactor Testing Station (today the Idaho National Laboratory). On December 20, 1951, the Experimental Breeder Reactor-1 produced the first electricity from a nuclear reaction. On July 17, 1955, the BORAX-III reactor provided electric lighting to the nearby town of Argo--the first community in the world ever to be lit by electricity generated by nuclear power.
Collection Number and Name P0206 Rocky Mountain Power Company Photograph Collection
Collection Name Rocky Mountain Power Company
Rights
Type Image
Finding Aid https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv479461
Digitization Specifications Digital image produced on Epson Expression 10000 XL scanner, RGB, at 400dpi. Archival file is uncompressed TIFF.
ARK ark:/87278/s6m629z6
Setname uum_map
ID 985576
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6m629z6
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