Experimental Breeder Reactor 1: Creepy But Cool
Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 (EBR-1) was the first nuclear reactor in the world to generate electricity, way back in 1951. It is a building on the outskirts of the land that is sectioned off for Idaho National Laboratory (which is HUGE).
It was decommissioned in 1964 and declared a national historic monument. In 1976 it was turned into a museum and you can take a self guided tour of the place for free.
DISCLAIMER: This post may contain links to affiliate websites. When you click on and/or make a purchase through an affiliate link placed on our website, we may receive a small commission or other form of compensation at no additional cost to you. Please read our disclaimer for more info.
Christine insists that the whole building was creepy, which it was, but I think it bothered her a little more than it did me. I mean, what could possibly be creepy about this?
Just inside that door is a nice sign about how low the residual levels of radiation are and that as long as you wear shoes, you’ll be fine! So we continued on our self guided tour.
Touring the Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 Site
Standing in the control room, where the lights were really bright.
The story behind the shutdown button was pretty funny.
Yes, I had to pretend to punch it.
Standing on top of the reactor core.
One of the steam turbines connected to a generator.
Unfortunately, the lighting in most of the exhibit wasn’t very good and many of our pictures didn’t turn out very well. Online reviews since then seem to show a much more well-lit museum these days. But we were able to capture most of the highlights.
Outdoor Exhibit at EBR-1
Outside they even had a couple of prototypes for nuclear powered aircraft. HTRE-2 “Heater 2” is on the left and HTRE-3 “Heater 3” is on the right.
The actual engines are only about 10 feet long. The giant frames were in place to keep them from taking off across the desert and for monitoring.
Thankfully, they wised up before getting these past the prototype phase and you can thank JFK for shutting the whole project down. Planes that spew massive amounts of radiation everywhere they go couldn’t have been a good thing…
Where To Go Next
Considering you are just down the road from Craters of the Moon make sure you head there next. There you can hike among lava flows and up cinder cones. Craters of the Moon even has lava tube caves to explore. Most likely you’re actually headed to Craters of the Moon when you happen to stumble upon EBR-1 as an extra bonus.
