1964

The desert plains of central Idaho bore silent witness to many events in history – the coming of the Oregon Trail, the wars between the whites and the Indians, the events of the Old West, Today they are witnessing a change that is far more important – the coming of atomic power. On the lava plains of central Idaho is the National Reactor Testing Station, famous for “firsts” in nuclear energy. Here electricity was first generated from atomic energy and atomic power first was used to light a town. Principles of nuclear submarine propulsion were worked out in “a ship on the desert” in Idaho. “Challenge” visits the National Reactor Testing Station to look at a power plant of the future, a reactor that makes more nuclear fuel than it consumes. The principle is not perpetual motion. This reactor takes the part of uranium that is not fissionable fuel (more than 99 per cent of the total) and converts it into plutonium, a man made element that is a good nuclear fuel. Because the reactor “breeds” plutonium it is called a “breeder” reactor – Experimental Breeder Reactor-II. How this breeding is accomplished, and how fuel for EBR-II is fabricated by remote control, is explained in this program. 

Norman Ross; Harry O. Monson; David McElroy; Carl Tubbs; John Suchy; Richard Puryear; Theodore Krohne; Ross-McElroy Productions; Argonne National Laboratory

National Educational Television; Indiana University Audio-Visual Center

Educational

Nuclear energy ; Nuclear engineering ; 	Nuclear fuels ; Nuclear reactors.

National Educational Television

IUL Moving Image Archive

English

2 Films (0:00:00); 16mm

IULMIA Film Database: 40000003393792; Other: GR00436199; MDPI Barcode: 40000003393792; MDPI Barcode: 40000003391655