Experimental Breeder Reactor-I opens Memorial Day weekend for summer tours
Idaho National Laboratory’s historical landmark museum opens Friday, May 27, and guided tours will be provided daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Labor Day weekend. Visitors may also tour the facility on their own aided by self-guided tour instructions.
Listed in The Geek Atlas: 128 Places Where Science & Technology Come Alive, EBR-I was completed in 1951 and became the first nuclear reactor to produce usable electricity on Dec. 20, 1951. The reactor was operated until late 1963 and decommissioned in 1964. It was dedicated as a Registered National Historic Landmark on Aug. 25, 1966, by President Lyndon Johnson and Glenn Seaborg, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
EBR-I was also dedicated as a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 1979 by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a Historic Landmark for Advances in Materials Technology in 1979 by the American Society of Metals, and a Nuclear Historic Landmark by the American Nuclear Society in 1987. In June 2004, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) marked EBR-I as an IEEE Milestone in electrical engineering and computing.
More than a quarter of a million visitors from every state and dozens of foreign countries have come through its doors since EBR-I opened for summer tours in 1975. All are encouraged to share the images of their experiences on the EBR-I Instagram and Facebook accounts, where additional information about EBR-I can be located.
Learn more at http://www.inl.gov/ebr/ or watch the video to take a virtual tour of the historic nuclear reactor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPxAxBul1BI.
