Experimental Breeder Reactor-I

The Idaho National Laboratory site boasts the first plutonium nuclear reactor to produce electricity, a bonified U.S. National Historical Landmark.  As part of our tour, J and I stopped for a visit. 

WOW. You wouldn't think such a thing could get two girls as giddy as a double-topped ice cream cone, but it sure did.  Here's why:

Completed in 1951, the Experimental Breeder Reactor (known in nuclear lingo as EBR) was built primarily to show that what some call a 'lower-grade' fuel, U-238, could be made into a 'high-grade' fuel, Pu-239.  This was a validation of a nuclear physics concept.  In addition the power generated from the reactor was converted to electricity, and used to power four 200-watt light bulbs.  The first electric light EVER produced from nuclear fission (see the shining light bulbs below). As a side note, you don't have nuclear radiation exposure from a light bulb that's burning off electricity powered by a nuclear reactor.

The EBR structure, replete with a fuel handling cask used to transfer fuel (you can't be touching the stuff once it's been bombarded with radiation... right?..good...), the up-to-date nuclear warning signs, and the top of the reactor, is a daughter product of a project completed at the Racquets Court under West Stands of Stagg Field, University of Chicago.  The project was known as Chicago Pile Number 1, dated December 2, 1942 .  It was also a nuclear reactor, the first to sustain nuclear fission. Its illustrious title was donned becasue it was quite literally a pile; a pile which consisted of blocks of uranium, uranium oxide, and graphite.

Time: 3:22 p.m, December 2, 1942. Place: Racquets Court under West Stands of Stagg Field, University of Chicago. Photograph of an original painting by Gary Sheehan. Depicted is his version of the scene when scientist(s) observed the world's first nuclear reactor (CP-1) as it became self-sustaining. No photographers were present. Fifteen years later the artist worked for nearly four months to reconstruct the mood and physical details of this historic event.
Courtesy: Exhibits and Educational Services Branch within the AEC's Division of Technical Information

Chicago Pile One scientists at the University of Chicago on December 2, 1946, the fourth anniversary of their success.

Back row, left to right, Norman Hilberry, Samuel Allison, Thomas Brill, Robert G. Nobles, Warren Nyer, and Marvin Wilkening. Middle row, Harold Agnew, William Sturm, Harold Lichtenberger, Leona W. Marshall, and Leo Szilard. Front row, Enrico Fermi, Walter H. Zinn, Albert Wattenberg, and Herbert L. Anderson.

Courtesy of atomicarchive.com

I only wish I could find the proper verbiage to describe what a magnificent contribution the nuclear physics field is to the whole of humanity and the creations of God.  It's ineffable.  The more I study its character, or what we believe to know about it, I find myself entranced at the methodical and chaotic movement of the scientific underpinning which girds everything we experience. To think, that the majesty of the sun, the breath of life, and the grace of love all have some root in tiny particles which combine in their proper sphere.  This is in no way meant to detract from my faith, but on the contrary, it bolsters my respect and love for Jehovah and my Creator as the usurper of entropy and the deliverer of order.