Idaho National Laboratory Cultural Resource Management Plan

Army Reactor Area. Work began at the Army
Reactor Area (ARA) in 1957 to develop compact,
portable reactors to generate electricity in remote
locations. This work culminated with one watercooled
reactor and two gas-cooled reactors, which
were constructed at three of the four ARA sites
(ARA-II, ARA-III, and ARA-IV). Support
facilities, including a hot cell, were located at
ARA-1, a nearby area south of ARA-II. In January
1961, an incident at the Stationary Low Power
reactor (SL-1), located at the ARA-II facility,
resulted in a steam explosion, leading to the first
fatalities in U.S. history directly related to nuclear
reactor operations.
After nearly nine years of operation, the army
program at ARA was terminated in 1965 due to
reactor maintenance problems, an inability to
define a current mission, and questions related to
cost effectiveness. After the Army terminated its
reactor programs, the name was changed to the
Auxiliary Reactor Area, and the remaining
facilities were used for a few years in support of
various other research programs. After standing
vacant for several years, decontamination and
dismantlement of the ARA structures began in
1993 (INEL 1962; Stacy 1997).
Critical Infrastructure Test Range
Complex. In 1955, the INL area now known as
the Critical Infrastructure Test Range Complex
(CITRC) was established as the Special Power
Excursion Reactor Test (SPERT) area to
implement the AEC’s water-cooled reactor safety
testing program. Four SPERT reactors were
designed, built, and operated in the 15-year period
between initial startup of SPERT-I on June 11,
1955, and final shutdown of SPERT-IV in 1970.
The purpose of the SPERT reactors was to study a
wide range of variables such as core configuration,
plate design, coolant flow, and reflector moderator
and temperature coefficients. In general, research
was directed toward “runaway power,” which was
the major safety concern at that time.
Following shutdown of SPERT-IV, the
SPERT area was renamed the Power Burst Facility
(PBF) in 1970 4 and SPERT-II, -III, and -IV were
4. The PBF area in which the SPERT and PBF reactor
facilities operated has been renamed CITRC. Unless
otherwise specified for historical purposes, the area
formerly designated as PBF is primarily referred to in
converted to the Waste Engineering Development
Facility, the Waste Experimental Reduction
Facility, and the Mixed Waste Storage Facility for
the treatment, storage, disposal, and recycling of
radioactive hazardous, mixed, and industrial and
commercial wastes. These three facilities were colocated
at the Waste Reduction Operations
Complex (WROC).
The SPERT-I reactor was demolished in 1985;
however, at the PBF reactor, just north of
SPERT I, studies continued on the effects of
abnormal conditions on nuclear fuels (INEL
1969). After years of successful operation and
failed attempts to attract new programs, the PBF
reactor at CITRC is presently being
decontaminated and dismantled while some of the
remaining offices and infrastructure at CITRC are
being used by Department of Homeland Security
programs.
Materials and Fuels Complex. In 1953, the
same year that Argonne’s EBR-I proved the
breeding concept, design began on the next
generation of breeder reactors. It was planned that
Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) would
serve as both a prototype for commercial breeder
reactors and as a testing and development center
for fuel reprocessing technologies. Construction
began in 1961 at the INL area now known as
MFC 5 (formerly Argonne National Laboratory-
West [ANL-W]) (see Figure 24), and EBR-II
achieved criticality in 1963. In 1964, the first fuels
were reprocessed and the reactor began producing
electricity. Eventually EBR-II produced enough
electricity to provide power to the entire INL. The
original design tests were accomplished by 1965,
and the reactor was then used as an irradiation
facility for the testing of reactor components.
EBR-II was shut down for the last time in 1994.
this section by its current designation of CITRC. The
SPERT and PBF reactor facilities within CITRC are
referred to by their original designations.
5. Unless otherwise specified for historical purposes, the
INL area originally known as ANL-W is primarily
referred to throughout this document by its current
designation of MFC.
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