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The BORAX Experiments, boiling reactor
experiments, were a series of tests using the BORAX-I nuclear reactor which proved Samuel
Untermyer II's 1952 theory that a reactor using direct boiling
of water would be practical, rather than unstable because of
the bubble
formation in the core. Subsequently the reactor was used for power excursion tests which showed that
rapid conversion of steam to water would safely control the
reaction. The final deliberately destructive test produced an
unexpectedly large power excursion and provided additional useful
data to improve mathematical models. The tests proved key safety principles
of the design of modern nuclear power reactors. Design power of
BORAX-I was 1.4 megawatts thermal.
Subsequently the BORAX-II reactor proved the principles of pressurised water reactors, with a design
output of 6 MW(t).
BORAX-II, modified into BORAX-III with the addition of a
turbine, proved that turbine contamination would not be a problem.
It was linked to the local power grid and for about an hour on July
17, 1955, it provided 2,000 kW to power nearby Arco, Idaho (500 kW),
the BORAX test facility (500 kW), and partially powered the
National Reactor Testing Station (now the Idaho National Laboratory)
(1,000 kW). Thus Arco became the first city solely powered by
nuclear energy. The reactor continued to be used for tests until 1956.
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