Idaho National Laboratory Cultural Resource Management Plan

highway could observe the steam and water shooting out of the top of the reactor and reported that the
Arco Desert had produced a new Old Faithful. 52
The last BORAX-I experiment took place in July 1954. It was designed to push the reactor to its
limits, that is, to destroy it. On July 22, a crowd of scientists and AEC officials gathered to observe. When
the crew in the control trailer quickly removed the excursion rod, the sudden change caused a tremendous
steam explosion. Although the reactor runaway was planned — all BORAX-I experiments involved a
runaway reactor — the explosion was something of a surprise. Debris, including reactor rods, plywood
sheets, and dirt, shot high into the air. The guests and a number of workers were told to take shelter while
a cloud containing small amounts of radioactivity passed over the site.
The results of the final experiment were regarded as inconclusive, but BORAX-I demonstrated that
boiling water in the reactor core did not cause instability. A later series of experiments with boiling water
reactors (the SPERT tests, discussed later in this report) included modifications of the reactor design to
safeguard against excursions. 53
The BORAX-I reactor debris was buried in place—entombed. The uncontaminated control equipment
was salvaged for use in a later series of BORAX experiments. In the fall of 1954, a site a short distance
from BORAX-I was selected as the location for the remaining BORAX experiments.
The early BORAX experiments contributed to the design of Argonne’s Experimental Boiling Water
Reactor (EBWR), the country's first power production pilot plant. EBWR, which operated at the Argonne
site in Illinois from 1956 to 1967, successfully supplied power for the national laboratory in 1966. 54
The later experiments in the BORAX series (BORAX-II through BORAX-V) were housed in a
prefabricated corrugated metal reactor building erected in late 1954 by the Morrison-Knudsen Company a
short distance from the site of BORAX-I. A turbine generator brought in for experiments with power
production was placed in a separate building, also made of prefabricated corrugated metal. 55
BORAX-II and BORAX-IV (1954–1955 and 1956–1958, respectively) tested various core
combinations and fuel elements. The BORAX-III series, operated in 1955, tested the reactor’s power
production capabilities. For these, researchers installed the turbine generator for the experiments.
According to R.J. Haroldsen, the team scrounged up an old “wet steam” turbine at an abandoned mining
site in New Mexico to use for the power production tests. On July 17, 1955, BORAX-III was patched into
the Utah Power & Light power grid. For two hours (11 p.m.–1 a.m.) BORAX-III produced power for the
town of Arco, part of the CFA, and the BORAX reactor complex. Although the power to Arco from
BORAX-III was discontinued after the first brief run, BORAX-III continued to supply power for the
BORAX complex and the CFA whenever it was running. It ceased operating later in 1955. 56
52. J. R. Dietrich and D. C. Laymans, Transient and Steady State Characteristics of a Boiling Reactor: The Borax Experiments,
1953, ANL-5211, February 1954; Holl, Argonne, p. 118; Ben Plastino, Coming of Age: Idaho Falls and the Idaho National
Engineering Laboratory, 1949-1990 (Idaho Falls: Margaret Plastino, 1998), p. 64.
53. Holl, Argonne, p. 199-121; Loftness, Nuclear Power Plants, p. 156-158; Richard L. Doan, “Two Decades of Reactor Safety
Evaluation,” Memorial lecture in honor of Dr. C. Rogers McCullough, prepared for delivery at the Winter Meeting of the
American Nuclear Society (Washington, D.C.: November 15-18, 1970), p. 5.
54. Argonne National Laboratory, Frontiers, Research Highlights, 1946-1996 (ANL 1996), p. 16; Loftness, Nuclear Power
Plants, p. 167-213.
55. The two buildings and associated support structures (including a redwood cooling tower and a guardhouse) were located in
an area about .75 mile north of EBR-I. A control trailer was located about one-half mile from the BORAX area for BORAX
II-IV. A control building was built outside the EBR-I complex for BORAX-V. D. L. Smith, Decontamination and
Decommissioning Plan for the BORAX-V Facility. (Idaho Falls: EG&G Idaho, Inc., Nov. 1988).
56. Glenn R. Rodman, Final Report of the Decontamination and Dismantlement of the BORAX-V Facility Reactor Building
(Idaho Falls: INEL, Inactive Sites Dept., Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies Company, INEL-96/0325, May 1997), p.
1-2; Loftness, Nuclear Power Plants, p. 2-4; Holl, Argonne, p. 139; Plastino, p. 64.
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