EBR-I breeder reactor: first nuclear electricity
Reactor reproductor EBR-I: primera electricidad nuclear
- Date
- 20 de diciembre de 1951 · confidence high
- Place
- Arco, Idaho, United States
- Credited to
- Walter Zinn and Argonne National Laboratory
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The Experimental Breeder Reactor I lit four bulbs with nuclear-generated electricity in December 1951 and in 1953 demonstrated that a reactor could produce more fissile fuel than it consumes. It was the first breeder reactor.
The first nuclear electricity was produced at EBR-I in 1951, before Obninsk (1954); breeding was demonstrated in 1953 and with a plutonium core in 1962.
What it led to
- fast reactors in Russia and France (BN-350, Phénix)
- the closed nuclear fuel cycle
- today's sodium fast reactors