June 18-19, 2018
Mountain View RV Park
The drive from Heber City to here was beautiful. A two lane state road that prepared us for the next phase of our trip. We are in the high desert so we are seeing alot more green. After so many months of seeing only brown in the desert, green is very refreshing.
We stopped at an RV park, and it feels like a place we visited in Quebec. A nice quiet, family owned, with lots of grass and trees. On the vertical edge of the mountain facing the town of Arco, where the markings of the High Schools graduating class’ years, paints in white numbers.
The population of Arco is around 900 people. So that means there is not too much to do, right? Wrong. Twenty miles outside of Arco there is the very first nuclear reactor ever built in the United States. Wow. We had a guided tour and it was interesting for George. Me, not so much. He is the geeky one that enjoys history, me, nope, but I persevered.
The EBR1 (experimental breading reactor) is a part of the Idaho National Laboratory. EBR1 is a sister site to Savannah River Site and one of seven sites across the states that do stuff with neutrons, atoms, plutonium, and uranium. They have around 900 square miles of land (size of Rode Island) in which to contaminant…. no, just kidding, but it is a great buffer zone.
In 1953, to show the world that atomic science was more than just for bombs, they created the first atomic power plant. They ran 17 miles of electric lines to Arco, and illuminated the town for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Yep, proof of concept, and they shut it off, and moved on to other experiments.
They designed, built, and test nuclear power for subs and carriers, and intentionally cause them to fail in a controlled environment. They even built the nuclear power device that runs the Curiosity Mars Rover, that is still in operation, taking pictures of the Mars surface, well after its expected life span.
We had dinner at the Pickle Place and there claim to fame was the Atomic Burger. It was atomic alright, crispy burnt. Not the best in the world, you can’t win all the time….
After a quick bite we drove to the national park Crater of the Moon. What an eerie scene. The park was a part of a caldera from around 200 million years ago when the magma flowed under the earths surface. Cones would spew out magma and it turned into the lava fields you see today.
It felt like we were on the moon. Cratery looking, barren, with no wildlife around. Its a good thing it is a national park because nothing could realistically be done with it.
