Mitsubishi Tech Support

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

60th anniversary of EBR-I power generation

Posted on 03:39 by Unknown
Yesterday and today mark an important event in nuclear energy history; these two days are the span during which the EBR-1 reactor plant, which was located at the National Reactor Testing Station, Arco, Idaho, generated useful electricity for the first time. The plant was slowly brought up to full power over a two day span; there was a famous moment the first day (December 20, 1951) on which the plant's turbine generator powered four light bulbs, while on the second day the turbine generator supplied all the plant power needs.

Dan Yurman, who worked at the NRTS (later, INEEL) for many years has an excellent posting on Idaho Samizdat which includes two videos. Click here to see his post; I highly recommend it.

Now, to be clear, in those years there were a number of "firsts" and a number of claimed firsts. The event we're talking about at EBR-I was the first generation of useful power to do work by a nuclear reactor plant. This was, of course, in the form of electricity. Let's take a quick look at a "firsts" timeline to get a better perspective overall; this is a generalized timeline I constructed myself a long while back for general reference.

December, 1942: First self sustaining nuclear reaction (CP-1, Chicago)
December, 1951: First generation of electric power (EBR-1, NRTS)
February, 1953: Second plant to generate electric power (HRE-1, Oak Ridge)
March, 1953: First nuclear power plant goes critical (STR-1, NRTS)
June, 1954: First nuclear generating plant critical (APS-1, Obninsk, USSR)
January, 1955: First nuclear powered vessel on sea trials (USS Nautilus)
March, 1955: First criticality of sodium cooled seagoing prototype (SIR, W. Milton)
July, 1955: First US sale of electricity generated by nuclear energy to a commercial power company (SIR, W. Milton, to Niagara Mohawk)
July, 1957: First Army nuclear plant completed (APPR, Ft. Belvoir)
October, 1957: GE Vallecitos BWR goes on line supplying power to PG&E, with commercial reactor license No. 1 from the AEC
December, 1957: Shippingport Atomic Power Station on line with Duquesne Light Company. First US full scale nuclear generating station; also, this was the first commercial nuclear generating station announced and ordered. GE quickly rushed the Vallecitos experimental reactor (preparation for Dresden station) and got a contract with PG&E to distribute the power to beat Westinghouse / Duquesne Light with Shippingport.
December, 1961: Nuclear powered ship NS Savannah achieves criticality.

--------------------------------------------------------------

That's a pretty solid, if brief, early timeline. At some point I'll publish the entire timeline, but these are the highlights. Now, let's get back to the anniversary at hand with just a quick technical look at the EBR-I plant.

EBR-I was a liquid metal and air cooled experimental fast breeder reactor. It was designed by Argonne National Laboratory, which at that time was the principal design bureau for the AEC. The Austin Company acted as architect-engineer, with Bechtel Corporation building the plant. The purposes of this plant were quite simple; it was supposed to test various breeding core designs (breeding means that you get as much or more fissionable material from core operation as you burn from the initial fissionable material loading) as well as work out various problems that were anticipated with metal cooled fast breeders. For those uninitiated, "fast breeder" means that the reactor is designed to sustain its chain reaction on fast fission - that is, the neutrons are not slowed down or 'thermalized' as they are in water cooled reactors.

Below, we see some illustrations from a TID-4562, Experimental Power and Test Reactors, November 1956 which was published by the Technical Information Service of the Atomic Energy Commission. First, the entire plant in cutaway, with the external building omitted. Click to enlarge.

Caption from TID-4562: "The primary liquid metal coolant flows by gravity from the supply tank (top center) through the reactor core, from which it absorbs heat, and then to the heat exchanger, where it gives up this heat to the secondary coolant, also liquid metal. The primary coolant is returned to the supply tank by an electromagnetic pump (bottom.) The secondary coolant is pumped to the boiler, where it gives up its heat to water, thus generating steam. The steam then passes to the turbine, is condensed, and returned to the boiler by a feed water pump.

This plant used NaK (sodium-potassium) for both the primary and secondary (intermediate) coolants; in the initial core installation, the primary coolant entered the core at 442F and exited at 600F with a pressure maintained at about 100 psig. The NaK flow rate through the core was 292 gallons per minute. The outer blanket was cooled by air, with a total airflow of 5800 cfm. Data indicate that if the inlet temperature to the blanket was 37F the outlet temperature was 196F.

The core configuration shown below is, I believe, the Mark II core. Four cores were used in the reactor; Mark I, August 1951 to January 1954; Mark II, March 1954 to November 1955; Mark III, November 1957 to late 1961 and finally a plutonium core was built and installed as the Mark IV in the spring of 1962. Looking at the Mark II core below:


The outer blanket of this core was movable on an elevator, and could be lowered to act as a control element. The core also had four regulating rods and eight safety rods.

The primary NaK coolant in this core flowed down between the inner blanket rods, and then up through the comparatively tiny central reactor core. As mentioned, there was a double heat transfer circuit also using NaK as the intermediate coolant, and then water as the final coolant. This steam generator produced steam at 400 psig and 3630 lbs/hr flow rate to drive the turbine generator which was rated 200 KWe. The total power of the reactor was divided; 72% of the total power was developed in the core, 14% in the inner blanket and 14% in the outer blanket. The total power rating of this core was 1400 KW.

Finally we have a view of the reactor installation from inside the reactor building. Eight to nine feet of concrete shielding surround the reactor tank; the stairs at the left lead up to the control room for the plant.


I hope you've enjoyed this commemoration, and a brief historical perspective.

7:40 AM Eastern Wednesday December 21, 2011
ATOMIC POWER REVIEW
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in "anniversary", "arco", "EBR", "NRTS" | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Nitrogen inerting drywells..
    Apparently the nitrogen injection to the drywell on No. 1 plant continues... and TEPCO has made a fairly revealing press release which inclu...
  • NuSource LLC - Press Release
    Press release on formation of NuSource LLC follows. MPR & Gavial Form Joint Venture, NuSource LLC, to Address Nuclear Industry Obsolesce...
  • Nuclear Icebreakers 101
    An addendum for National Nuclear Science Week - Day 3 In the previous post I gave the briefest overview of the history of the Russian fleet ...
  • Davis-Besse vessel head replacement
    As reported on the NRC blog, Davis-Besse has been shut down for replacement of its pressure vessel head. This plant is a Babcock & Wilco...
  • Atomic History: Dresden-1
    In one of our previous discussions concerning the nature of reactor plant containment, we made considerable effort to detail the very early ...
  • Carnival 81 on line now
    Dan Yurman has posted the 81st Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers over at his fine blog, "Idaho Samizdat." APR's post on the Decembe...
  • San Onofre seismic study - Press release 4/27
    Press release below from SoCal Ed. Some very interesting news about a cooperative project to further investigate the seismic environment at...
  • An interesting week, to say the least.
    This has indeed been an interesting week for those who follow the news in nuclear energy. Here is a brief recap from my perspective. NRC CH...
  • Hurricane Irene approaching Eastern U.S.
    Probably no one at this point could do better than Brian Wheeler did at POWER ENGINEERING with the following article (link below) concerning...
  • Brief Fukushima Daiichi update- Sunday 5/22
    As reported on this blog on April 23, TEPCO has (again) noted the discovery of radioactive debris on the Fukushima Daiichi site which is emi...

Categories

  • " fukushima daiichi"
  • "accident"
  • "alloy"
  • "ameren"
  • "american nuclear society"
  • "annealing"
  • "anniversary"
  • "ans"
  • "anti-nuclear"
  • "AP1000"
  • "arco"
  • "areva"
  • "asn"
  • "associated press" "NRC" "NEI"
  • "atomic journal"
  • "babcock"
  • "blackout"
  • "bloggers"
  • "boron"
  • "brazil"
  • "breeder reactor"
  • "breeder"
  • "browns ferry"
  • "browns ferry" "nine mile point"
  • "BWR"
  • "calhoun"
  • "callaway"
  • "carnival"
  • "chernobyl"
  • "china"
  • "chubu electric" "hamaoka"
  • "chubu" "hamaoka"
  • "chubu" "hamaoka" "tepco" "fukushima daiichi"
  • "chubu" "kyushu" "nisa"
  • "COL"
  • "commissioners"
  • "containment"
  • "contaminated"
  • "cooling"
  • "cooper" "ft calhoun" "flood" "missouri river"
  • "core damage"
  • "criticality"
  • "davis-besse"
  • "delta IV"
  • "dresden" "boiling water reactor" "containment"
  • "dry dock"
  • "dry well"
  • "earth day"
  • "earthquake"
  • "EBR"
  • "ebwr"
  • "education"
  • "elk river"
  • "embrittlement"
  • "enclosure"
  • "energy policy"
  • "equipment"
  • "fabrication"
  • "fermi"
  • "fire"
  • "flood"
  • "frontline"
  • "ft calhoun"
  • "ft calhoun" "oppd" "flood"
  • "ft st vrain"
  • "fukushima daiichi"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "BWR"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "nisa" "tepco"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "dry well" "containment" "pressure vessel"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "iaea"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "kurion" "areva"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "nisa"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "nisa" "genkai" "pressure vessel"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "nisa" "jaif"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "nisa" "japan"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "nisa" "jsc" "road map" "recovery"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "nisa" "spent fuel" "pool"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "nitrogen"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "robot" "video"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "tokai" "japco" "iaea"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "tomari" "hokkaido"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "tsunami"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "video"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "tepco" "video" "youtube"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "TMI" "public opinion" "survey"
  • "fukushima daiichi" "video"
  • "fukushima daiichi" 7 8 plants economic plan TEPCO
  • "fukushima daiichi" cooling water release sea ocean nuclear reactor accident NISA TEPCO pit trench tunnel
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident contaminated water barge Suzuran Rosatom TEPCO
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident contaminated water sea radwaste condensers nitrogen hydrogen inert
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident earthquake onagawa TEPCO tohoku BWR nitrogen
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident IAEA TEPCO update briefing temperatures pressures
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident japan update color dye containment fabric update
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident leakage sea seawater contamination tunnel trench cable pit
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident liquid glass sodium silicate TEPCO
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident nitrogen hydrogen inert dry well drywell
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident nitrogen inert radiolytic radiolysis hydrogen
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident polymer leak concrete contaminated contamination reactor pressure vessel containment cooling
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident seawater contamination iodine tunnel trench TEPCO NISA JAIF
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident site update status project future
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident sodium silicate liquid glass diagram drawing perspective pipe tunnel trench contamination sea seawater
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident TEPCO NISA JAIF update
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident update TEPCO JAIF NISA
  • "fukushima daiichi" nuclear reactor accident water leakage contamination workers found dead
  • "fukushima"
  • "gas cooled"
  • "genkai"
  • "genkai" "embrittlement" "brittle" "pressure vessel"
  • "genkai" "kyushu"
  • "hack job"
  • "hallam"
  • "head"
  • "hearing"
  • "hearings"
  • "higashidori"
  • "hitachi"
  • "HNPF"
  • "hurricane"
  • "hydrogen"
  • "IAEA"
  • "icebreaker"
  • "IFR"
  • "INES"
  • "injection"
  • "irene"
  • "irrelevant"
  • "jaczko"
  • "jaczko" "NRC"
  • "JAIF"
  • "japan"
  • "kurion"
  • "kyushu"
  • "laguna verde"
  • "lenin"
  • "licensing"
  • "loop"
  • "lunch"
  • "marcoule"
  • "mark I"
  • "melt"
  • "meltdown"
  • "mexico"
  • "mitsubishi"
  • "MK I" "containment" "suppression" "youtube" "video"
  • "mPower"
  • "mPower" "Bechtel" "TVA" "babcock"
  • "national nuclear science week"
  • "nei"
  • "new nuclear"
  • "NISA"
  • "nitrogen"
  • "no 5"
  • "no 6"
  • "north anna"
  • "NRC"
  • "NRTS"
  • "nuclear aftershocks"
  • "nuclear energy institute"
  • "nuclear history"
  • "nuclear icebreaker"
  • "office for nuclear regulation"
  • "op-ed"
  • "op-ed" "carnival"
  • "op-ed" "fukushima daiichi"
  • "opinion"
  • "oversight"
  • "palisades"
  • "pbs"
  • "peer review"
  • "poll"
  • "PRA"
  • "press"
  • "pressure vessel"
  • "pressurized thermal shock"
  • "primary to secondary leak"
  • "PTS"
  • "public attitudes"
  • "PWR"
  • "RBMK-1000"
  • "RBMK-1500"
  • "RBMK-2400"
  • "RBMK"
  • "reactor safety"
  • "reading list"
  • "recriticality"
  • "Reid"
  • "reporting"
  • "restart"
  • "risk"
  • "robot"
  • "rod adams" "glenn williams" "interview" "atomic show" "the street"
  • "safety"
  • "san onofre"
  • "sarry"
  • "SBO"
  • "sheldon station"
  • "shippingport"
  • "SMR"
  • "solar"
  • "songs"
  • "south africa"
  • "south texas project"
  • "spent fuel"
  • "SSBN"
  • "steam generator"
  • "steam generators"
  • "steel"
  • "stress tests"
  • "submarine"
  • "support"
  • "Svinicki"
  • "sylcor"
  • "sylvania-corning"
  • "TEPCO"
  • "tepco" "tohoku" "kyushu" "japan"
  • "TMI"
  • "tokyo electric"
  • "Toshiba"
  • "twitter"
  • "UK"
  • "update"
  • "vermont yankee"
  • "vessel"
  • "video"
  • "virgil c summer"
  • "virginia"
  • "vogtle"
  • "wash-1250"
  • "WASH"
  • "westinghouse"
  • "westinghouse" "AP1000" "NRC"
  • "xenon"
  • "youtube"
  • ANO
  • ANS
  • arkansas nuclear one
  • Babcock
  • brittle fracture
  • brookhaven
  • carnival
  • crystal river
  • decommissioning
  • earthquake
  • enriched uranium
  • Entergy
  • fintan dunne
  • FirstEnergy
  • fresno
  • fuel elements
  • fukushima daiichi
  • higashidori
  • hurricane
  • hurricanes
  • industrial accident
  • INES
  • kashiwazaki kariwa TEPCO earthquake
  • kenya
  • license amendment
  • MHI
  • mitsubishi
  • mPower
  • NEI
  • northern fleet
  • nrc
  • nuclear electricity project
  • nuclear history
  • nuclear submarines
  • onagawa tohoku leak earthquake
  • OSHA
  • oyster creek
  • palisades
  • press release
  • pressurized thermal shock
  • PTS
  • retire
  • russian navy
  • san onofre
  • sandy
  • sce
  • sherrell r greene
  • shutdown
  • SMR
  • socal ed
  • songs
  • southern california edison
  • spent fuel
  • spent fuel pool
  • spent fuel pools
  • status
  • steam generator
  • steam generators
  • surry
  • sustainable energy today
  • sylcor
  • sylvania-corning
  • TEPCO
  • tohoku electric power higashidori onagawa LOOP fuel pool cooling
  • tokyo electric power company
  • unusual event

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (71)
    • ►  October (5)
    • ►  September (5)
    • ►  August (9)
    • ►  July (5)
    • ►  June (6)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (8)
    • ►  March (13)
    • ►  February (13)
    • ►  January (5)
  • ►  2012 (159)
    • ►  December (6)
    • ►  November (7)
    • ►  October (13)
    • ►  September (7)
    • ►  August (19)
    • ►  July (15)
    • ►  June (16)
    • ►  May (17)
    • ►  April (13)
    • ►  March (14)
    • ►  February (14)
    • ►  January (18)
  • ▼  2011 (270)
    • ▼  December (22)
      • Russian Delta IV class submarine fire
      • Fukushima / TEPCO update for December 28, 2011
      • Fukushima Daiichi - brief update
      • The 84th Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers
      • Westinghouse AP1000 certified
      • National Nuclear Science Week - this time, next mo...
      • 60th anniversary of EBR-I power generation
      • Radiation deaths in US due to Fukushima Daiichi: ...
      • "Cold Shutdown" controversy at Fukushima Daiichi
      • Carnival 83 up at ANS Nuclear Cafe
      • APR - December 17, 2011
      • House Oversight Committee / NRC hearing, Dec. 14
      • Update to core cooling information at Fukushima Da...
      • Fukushima Daiichi update - December 13, 2011
      • Radioactive Emissions Measurement at Fukushima Dai...
      • AP1000 SBO information
      • The situation at the NRC
      • Carnival 82 online now... and it's a special one!
      • Will's winter reading list
      • Process water leakage at Fukushima Daiichi, and po...
      • Carnival 81 on line now
      • December 2, 2011 - An anniversary piece.
    • ►  November (21)
    • ►  October (20)
    • ►  September (21)
    • ►  August (17)
    • ►  July (23)
    • ►  June (24)
    • ►  May (44)
    • ►  April (78)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile