Wasn't a SAFE, efficient nuclear power plant built in Idaho, years ago, and can anyone give me info about it?

Question

I have read about a plant that ran for years on spent fuel rods from other, larger plants. When other nuclear plants needed to be built the gov't went with a design that would support our "mutually assured destruction" foreign policy (can you say "dual purpose facility). But, what ever happened to that original power plant? Why can't we build more of them? Why aren't we hearing more about it, now that we really need such plants to offset foreign oil and the U.N. Kyoto tax bill on fossil fuel use?

Answer 1

History

Electricity was generated for the first time by a nuclear reactor on December 20, 1951 at the EBR-I experimental station near Arco, Idaho in the United States. On June 27, 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant to generate electricity for a power grid started operations at Obninsk, USSR [3]. The worlds first commercial scale power station, Calder Hall in England opened in 17 October, 1956 [4]

In this ordinary-looking photograph, taken in Idaho in December 1951, the reader is witnessing a technological breakthrough that will change history. The light bulbs are quite ordinary but they rely on the Experimental Breeder Reactor-1 for their source of power. Years later, President Eisenhower will launch the international "Atoms for Peace" program. Idaho's National Energy and Environmental Engineering Lab web site provides a film of the EBR-1 in action.
1951: The EBR-1 and the Four Light Bulbs

Idaho might not be the first State that comes to mind when people think about the atom, but "the Gem of the Mountains" has played a significant role in developing nuclear power for more than 50 years. In 1951, the National Reactor Testing Station (now known as the Idaho National Energy and Environmental Laboratory, or INEEL) used the world's first nuclear-provided electricity to light one of its buildings. The source of the power was the Station's Experimental Breeder Reactor-1 (EBR-1), a unit that continued in service until decommissioned in 1964. More information on the EBR-1, including tours at the museum site, and on the lab's other projects, can be obtained on the INEEL web site.