Category Archives: Nuclear Legacy

Vallecitos Nuclear Center

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While visiting friends in Livermore, California, we drove along Highway 84 in the Sunol area to see the Vallecitos Nuclear Center nestled among the rolling hills of Alameda County.

The Vallecitos boiling water reactor (VBWR) was the first privately owned and operated nuclear power plant to deliver electricity to a public utility grid. Inaugurated in 1957 with the US Atomic Energy Commission’s “Power Reactor License No. 1,” the main power generating facilities operated until 1963.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company and General Electric (now GE Hitachi) built the facility, which generated about 5 megawatts of electricity, and was mainly used for testing in anticipation of larger commercial plants. The remaining reactor at Vallecitos generates just 100 kilowatts and performs neutron radiography imaging.

The Center is now used for testing, training, and research. Below is a newsreel story from November 25, 1957, of the opening of the plant.

Arco, Idaho

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Arco, Idaho. First city in the world to be lit by atomic power. Elevation 5320.

As you drive through Arco on US 26, before the junction of West Grand Avenue and South Front Street, you’ll find a grand building faced with lava rock from the area with the lighted sign claiming to be the first city in the world to be lit by atomic power (elevation 5320).

On July 17, 1955, electricity generated by Boiling Water Reactor No. 3 (BORAX-III) was fed over the lines serving Arco, producing approximately 2,000 kilowatts of electrical power for about two hours.

Charles Pieper, along with Zeke Stewart (directing from his hospital bed after suffering a heart attack), and John Yeates (Philips Electrical Engineer), devised the method for putting the atomic power generated by BORAX-III into the lines which Utah Power used to serve Arco.

The building has served many purposes in the past from visitor center to civic offices, and is currently a community center. The anniversary of the event is celebrated each year with Atomic Days, the weekend closest to July 17.

For more information:
Arco — First Atomic City. (2022). Butte County IDGenWeb.
Troyer, D. (2004, July 4). Arco’s nuclear claim to fame. American Profile.

Chthonodynamis

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In front of the lobby of the Department of Energy‘s James V. Forestal Building, a low-rise Brutalist office building in Washington, D.C., is Robert Russin‘s Chthonodynamis sculpture carved from a single block of Norwegian granite.

Chthonic is derived from Ancient Greek meaning earth or soil. Dynamis (dunamis) also comes from Ancient Greek and refers to power and potentiality. Together, they form Russin’s description of the worldwide hunger for energy (“Earth Energy”). The sculpture depicts energy inside a hollow sphere, with the figure of a man attempting to contain it.

The 10-foot sculpture was installed in 1992. Russin was an American sculpture from Wyoming who created a number of public sculptures throughout the United States.