PLENTIFUL ENERGY

of each period, which the management of the laboratory at each time had to deal
with, and the need for scientific freedom for its highly qualified technical staff to do
what they were there to do—to develop the knowledge needed for discriminating
use of the power of the atom. In the main Argonne was successful in maintaining a
balance between the two competing imperatives, more so at some times than others,
but the need to protect scientific freedom and integrity was always put foremost.
Argonne‘s institutional history is one of constant struggle, constant controversy, as
the laboratory maneuvered to balance the competing requirements of the Atomic
Energy Commission, later the Department of Energy, its sponsor; the University of
Chicago, its contractor and its supporter; regional universities wishing to benefit
from the presence of the Laboratory; and its own need to get on with its work. In
the main, Argonne was successful; at the working level the Argonne scientists and
engineers were almost completely buffered from the concerns of management at the
top of the laboratory, and remarkable results were produced. All the principal
reactor types now proven to be successful around the world were Argonne products;
if not invented at Argonne, they were developed there.
Walter Zinn, the first laboratory director, the nation‘s foremost reactor designer
in the very early years, quite truly invented the fast reactor. Under his guidance,
breeder development began early at Argonne‘s Illinois site, and in 1949
construction of the Experimental Breeder Reactor Number One began. Operational
in December of 1951, this reactor proved the breeding principle, and with it the
concept of unlimited fuel supplies for nuclear energy; it generated the first
electricity by nuclear means; it demonstrated the use of plutonium as nuclear
reactor fuel; and it achieved many other ―firsts in the world.‖
The Experimental Breeder Reactor Number Two followed, beginning operation
on the Idaho site in 1964. This was no ―proof of principle experiment,‖ this was a
complete power plant, with a number of very sound and very important innovations.
Producing twenty megawatts of electricity, EBR-II demonstrated for the first time
the pool concept, wherein all radioactive items, including the coolant, are kept
inside the reactor vessel, along with the reactor core. It demonstrated simple fuel
manufacture by remote means and simple reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, and its
return to the reactor. In a number of important areas it pointed the way.
Its technology was not perfect; more development was certainly needed to bring
the Experimental Breeder concept to practical commercial completion, and more
research was needed in some key areas. Solutions to some of the problems were by
no means obvious. Before such work could be undertaken, and before the next step,
an EBR-III, could be contemplated, a sea change took place in the support of the
Atomic Energy Commission. The Experimental Breeder line of development was
terminated. The nation was to take a different path to its fast breeder reactor. It
would adapt light water reactor design choices to the fast breeder reactor. They
fitted the breeder but not well. Twenty years passed; new people, a new generation
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