BORAX experiments
Encyclopedia
Idaho National Laboratory
Idaho National Laboratory is an complex located in the high desert of eastern Idaho, between the town of Arco to the west and the cities of Idaho Falls and Blackfoot to the east. It lies within Butte, Bingham, Bonneville and Jefferson counties...
.
This series of tests began with the BORAX-I nuclear reactor
Nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...
, which proved Samuel Untermyer II
Samuel Untermyer II
Samuel Untermyer II, was a United States nuclear engineer who theorised that steam bubble formation in a nuclear reactor core would not produce unstable reactions but would instead result in an inherently stable and self-controlling reactor design...
's 1952 theory that a reactor using direct boiling of water
Boiling water reactor
The boiling water reactor is a type of light water nuclear reactor used for the generation of electrical power. It is the second most common type of electricity-generating nuclear reactor after the pressurized water reactor , also a type of light water nuclear reactor...
would be practical, rather than unstable, because of the bubble formation
Void coefficient
In nuclear engineering, the void coefficient is a number that can be used to estimate how much the reactivity of a nuclear reactor changes as voids form in the reactor moderator or coolant...
in the core. Subsequently the reactor was used for power excursion tests which showed that rapid conversion of water to steam would safely control the reaction. The final, deliberately destructive test in 1954 produced an unexpectedly large power excursion that "instead of the melting of a few fuel plates, the test melted a major fraction of the entire core." However, this core meltdown and release of nuclear fuel
Nuclear fuel
Nuclear fuel is a material that can be 'consumed' by fission or fusion to derive nuclear energy. Nuclear fuels are the most dense sources of energy available...
and fission products provided additional useful data to improve mathematical models. The tests proved key safety principles
Nuclear safety
Nuclear safety covers the actions taken to prevent nuclear and radiation accidents or to limit their consequences. This covers nuclear power plants as well as all other nuclear facilities, the transportation of nuclear materials, and the use and storage of nuclear materials for medical, power,...
of the design of modern nuclear power reactors. Design power of BORAX-I was 1.4 megawatts thermal. The BORAX-I design was a precursor to the SL-1
SL-1
The SL-1, or Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, was a United States Army experimental nuclear power reactor which underwent a steam explosion and meltdown on January 3, 1961, killing its three operators. The direct cause was the improper withdrawal of the central control rod, responsible for...
plant, which was sited nearby and began operations in 1958. The principles discovered in the BORAX-I experiments helped scientists understand the issues which contributed to the fatal accident at SL-1 in 1961.
Built in 1954, the BORAX-II reactor proved the principles of pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactors constitute a large majority of all western nuclear power plants and are one of three types of light water reactor , the other types being boiling water reactors and supercritical water reactors...
s, with a design output of 6 MW(t).
BORAX-II, modified into BORAX-III with the addition of a turbine, proved that turbine contamination would not be a problem. It was linked to the local power grid and for about an hour on July 17, 1955, it provided 2,000 kW to power nearby Arco, Idaho
Arco, Idaho
Arco is a city in Butte County, Idaho, United States. The population was 995 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Butte County.Craters of the Moon National Monument is located along U.S. Route 20, southwest of the city. The Idaho National Laboratory is located east of Arco...
(500 kW), the BORAX test facility (500 kW), and partially powered the National Reactor Testing Station (now the Idaho National Laboratory
Idaho National Laboratory
Idaho National Laboratory is an complex located in the high desert of eastern Idaho, between the town of Arco to the west and the cities of Idaho Falls and Blackfoot to the east. It lies within Butte, Bingham, Bonneville and Jefferson counties...
) (1,000 kW). Thus Arco became the first city solely powered by nuclear energy. The reactor continued to be used for tests until 1956.
BORAX-IV, built in 1956, explored the thorium fuel cycle
Thorium fuel cycle
The thorium fuel cycle is a nuclear fuel cycle that uses the naturally abundant isotope of thorium, , as the fertile material. In the reactor, is transmuted into the fissile artificial uranium isotope which is the nuclear fuel. Unlike natural uranium, natural thorium contains only trace amounts...
and uranium-233
Uranium-233
Uranium-233 is a fissile isotope of uranium, bred from Thorium as part of the thorium fuel cycle. It has been used in a few nuclear reactors and has been proposed for much wider use as a nuclear fuel. It has a half-life of 160,000 years....
fuel with a power of 20 MW thermal. This experiment utilized fuel plates that were purposely full of defects in order to explore long-term plant operation with damaged fuel plates. Radioactive gasses were released into the atmosphere.
BORAX-V continued the work on boiling water reactor designs, including the use of a superheater
Superheater
A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into dry steam used for power generation or processes. There are three types of superheaters namely: radiant, convection, and separately fired...
. It operated from 1962 to 1964.
Cleanup
When BORAX-I was intentionally destroyed, the reactor breached containmentContainment building
A containment building, in its most common usage, is a steel or reinforced concrete structure enclosing a nuclear reactor. It is designed, in any emergency, to contain the escape of radiation to a maximum pressure in the range of 60 to 200 psi...
, causing the "aerial distribution of contaminants resulting from the final experiment of the BORAX-I reactor" and the likely contamination of the topmost 1 foot of soil over about 2 acres in the vicinity. The site needed to be cleaned up prior to being used for subsequent experiments. The 84,000-square foot (7,800 m2) area was covered with 6 inches of gravel in 1954, but grass, sagebrush, and other plants reseeded the area since then. The BORAX-I burial ground is located about 2,730 feet (832 m) northwest of the Experimental Breeder Reactor-1, a publicly-accessible national monument. Since 1987, the United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
has classified the burial ground as Superfund
Superfund
Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances...
site Operable Unit 6-01, one of two such sites (along with SL-1
SL-1
The SL-1, or Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, was a United States Army experimental nuclear power reactor which underwent a steam explosion and meltdown on January 3, 1961, killing its three operators. The direct cause was the improper withdrawal of the central control rod, responsible for...
) at the Idaho National Laboratory
Idaho National Laboratory
Idaho National Laboratory is an complex located in the high desert of eastern Idaho, between the town of Arco to the west and the cities of Idaho Falls and Blackfoot to the east. It lies within Butte, Bingham, Bonneville and Jefferson counties...
. In 1995, the EPA ordered the primary remedy of the burial ground should be: "Containment by capping with an engineered barrier constructed primarily of native materials."
See also
- SL-1SL-1The SL-1, or Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, was a United States Army experimental nuclear power reactor which underwent a steam explosion and meltdown on January 3, 1961, killing its three operators. The direct cause was the improper withdrawal of the central control rod, responsible for...
, the only demonstration of the BORAX-I principles during a real nuclear accident - Experimental Breeder Reactor IExperimental Breeder Reactor IExperimental Breeder Reactor I is a decommissioned research reactor and U.S. National Historic Landmark located in the desert about southeast of Arco, Idaho. At 1:50 pm on December 20, 1951 it became the world's first electricity-generating nuclear power plant when it produced sufficient...
first production of electric power
External links
- BORAX-I reactor description at Argonne National LaboratoryArgonne National LaboratoryArgonne National Laboratory is the first science and engineering research national laboratory in the United States, receiving this designation on July 1, 1946. It is the largest national laboratory by size and scope in the Midwest...
site. (Via archive.org, version of October 10, 2004) - BORAX-II reactor description at Argonne National laboratory (Via archive.org, version of 10 October 2004)
- BORAX-III reactor description at Argonne National laboratory (Via archive.org, version of 10 October 2004)
- BORAX-IV reactor description at Argonne National laboratory (Via archive.org, version of 10 October 2004)
- BORAX-V reactor description at Argonne National laboratory (Via archive.org, version of 10 October 2004)
- Summaries of BORAX experiments in Appendix B of Idaho National Laboratory's history Proving the Principle.