Since heat generated from fission is what drives electricity production in nuclear reactors, U-238 itself is useless, but the synthetic P-239 isotope can sustain fission. Despite its global abundance, the U-238 isotope is not fissionable. The reactor had the added benefit of turning previously unusable uranium-238 (a naturally occurring and plentiful isotope) into plutonium-239 (a synthetic isotope which could be used as reactor fuel). Soon after, EBR-1 was producing enough electricity to power the complex in which it was housed. When the reactor went online for the first time on December 20 th, 1951, it was the first time that the process of nuclear fission had ever led to electrical generation. Walter Zinn and his team proved that nuclear power could be harnessed to produce electricity. The success of the EBR-1 reactor designed by Dr. The promise of peaceful atomic uses juxtaposed against the determination for further military application became the dual defining characteristics of the new laboratory. These early NRTS reactors laid the foundation for the laboratory’s identity and future endeavors to come. It was also tasked with the management and disposal of nuclear waste. The Chem Plant extracted whatever U-235 might be left from a fuel cell after its use.
Originally named the National Reactor Testing Station, this sprawling 890-square-mile complex was established by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1949 to serve as a hub of atomic innovation in the United States.