Summer tours at Experimental Breeder Reactor-I begin Friday
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The following is a news release from the Idaho National Laboratory.
IDAHO FALLS — INL’s historical landmark museum opens Friday, May 25, and will provide free guided tours seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Labor Day. Visitors may also tour the facility on their own by following self-guided tour instructions.
EBR-I is featured in the Atlas Obscura, “the definitive guide to the world’s wondrous and curious places,” and is also listed in The Geek Atlas: 128 Places Where Science & Technology Come Alive.
The reactor was completed in 1951 and became the first nuclear reactor to produce a usable amount of electricity on Dec. 20, 1951. EBR-I 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.
Last summer, EBR-I hosted more than 10,000 visitors from across the world. 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 found.
INL is a Department of Energy national laboratory. The laboratory performs work in each of DOE’s strategic goal areas: energy, national security, science and environment. INL is the nation’s leading center for nuclear energy research and development. Day-to-day management and operation of the laboratory is the responsibility of Battelle Energy Alliance.