BORAX experiments

The BORAX Experiments, boiling reactor experiments, were a series of tests using the BORAX-I nuclear reactor which proved Samuel Untermyer II's 1952 theory that a reactor using direct boiling of water would be practical, rather than unstable because of the bubble formation in the core. Subsequently the reactor was used for power excursion tests which showed that rapid conversion of steam to water would safely control the reaction. The final deliberately destructive test produced an unexpectedly large power excursion and provided additional useful data to improve mathematical models. The tests proved key safety principles of the design of modern nuclear power reactors. Design power of BORAX-I was 1.4 megawatts thermal.

Subsequently the BORAX-II reactor proved the principles of pressurised water reactors, 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 (500 kW), the BORAX test facility (500 kW), and partially powered the National Reactor Testing Station (now the Idaho National Laboratory) (1,000 kW). Thus Arco became the first city solely powered by nuclear energy. The reactor continued to be used for tests until 1956.

ee also

*SL-1, the only demonstration of the BORAX-I principles during a real nuclear accident

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20021224231121/http://www.anlw.anl.gov/anlw_history/reactors/borax_i.html BORAX-I reactor] description at Argonne National Laboratory site. (Via archive.org, version of 12/24/2002)
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20041010094808/http://www.anlw.anl.gov/anlw_history/reactors/borax_ii.html BORAX-II reactor] description at Argonne National laboratory (Via archive.org, version of 10/10/2004)
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20041010100935/http://www.anlw.anl.gov/anlw_history/reactors/borax_iii.html BORAX-III reactor] description at Argonne National laboratory (Via archive.org, version of 10/10/2004)
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20041010101618/www.anlw.anl.gov/anlw_history/reactors/borax_iv.html BORAX-IV reactor] description at Argonne National laboratory (Via archive.org, version of 10/10/2004)
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20041010102351/www.anlw.anl.gov/anlw_history/reactors/borax_v.html BORAX-V reactor] description at Argonne National laboratory (Via archive.org, version of 10/10/2004)
* [http://www.inl.gov/proving-the-principle/appendices.pdf Summaries of BORAX experiments] in Appendix B of Idaho National Laboratory's history [http://www.inl.gov/proving-the-principle/ "Proving the Principle"] .