Idaho National Laboratory Cultural Resource Management Plan

DD&D of the OMRE. The facility then was used as a training facility for the security force at INL. The
vicinity was equipped for target practice and other security training procedures.
All of the structures at the EOCR site have been demolished. The organic-cooled reactor concept was
a significant symbol of the AEC reactor program despite its status as a concept that ended up as “a path
not chosen” for commercial development. Pursuant to an MOA with the Idaho SHPO, photographs were
taken of the buildings prior to demolition in anticipation of HABS/HAER recordation.
Sub-Theme: Cold War Weapons and Military Applications
Naval Reactors Facility
The Navy's Quest for Nuclear Propulsion: 1939-1948. The Navy's dream of nuclear power for
propulsion predated both the existence of the AEC and the entrance of the United States into World War
II. As early as 1939, the Naval Research Laboratory became involved in budding atomic research, and
thereafter participated in the Manhattan Project. Navy research, shared with the Army, led to the
production of Uranium-235, which the Manhattan Project used for the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
After World War II, some Naval leaders, particularly Admiral Earle Mills of the Bureau of Ships,
envisioned nuclear propulsion as the key to ocean-warfare supremacy. In 1946 Admiral Mills sent Navy
researchers to Oak Ridge to learn the fundamentals of nuclear technology. Mills selected Captain Hyman
Rickover, known for his excellent work on shipboard electrical problems, as senior officer. Rickover
embarked on a career known for combining his formidable personality with the goal of developing
nuclear propulsion. 146
The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 and the formation of the AEC in 1947 obliged the Navy to work in
close cooperation with the new civilian agency. Admiral Mills and Captain Rickover worked on
procedures for cooperation between Navy and AEC staff. These arrangements stayed essentially the same
for the next thirty years. The Navy focused more on engineering, while the AEC oversaw reactor
research, initial design, and plant and shipboard safety. The Navy designed, built, and operated its ships.
The AEC also received Navy funds for the naval features required on a shipboard plant. All land
prototypes of the shipboard nuclear plants were funded by the AEC, with some supporting funds from the
Navy. All actual shipboard plants were paid for by the Navy with the exception of the first two—the
submarines USS Nautilus and USS Seawolf. 147
Several AEC national laboratories were responsible for developing various aspects of naval nuclear
power. The Bettis Laboratory (operated by Westinghouse) near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was chosen as
the site for the design and development of a naval nuclear plant. Knolls Laboratory in Schenectady, New
York (operated by General Electric), was the site chosen for an intermediate naval reactor, with technical
assistance supplied by the Argonne National Laboratory. Knolls engineers worked on the feasibility of a
liquid-metal cooled reactor. Oak Ridge investigated the use of high-pressure, water-cooled reactors. A
plant at Shippingport, Pennsylvania, was planned to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear power for
civilian use.
Submarines in the Desert: 1948-1955. After the AEC decided to build the NRTS, it determined
that the Navy's water-cooled reactor prototype would be one of the first four projects built at the new
testing station (the others being EBR-I, the MTR, and the Chemical Processing Plant). Argonne and
Westinghouse designed and developed components for the reactor. The village of West Milton, New
York, was chosen for the liquid-metal-cooled reactor prototype, since it was close to the Schenectady
laboratory. A small-submarine prototype plant was developed later at Windsor, Connecticut, in 1957. 148
146. Hewlett, Atomic Shield, p. 74-76.
147. Francis Duncan, Rickover and the Nuclear Navy (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990), 4. Hereafter cited as
“Duncan, Rickover.” See also Hewlett, Atomic Shield, p. 189.
148. Hewlett, Atomic Shield, p. 418-419; see also Duncan, Rickover, p. 5.
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