52 IDAHO FALLS MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2017
From Imagination
to Innovation
Advanced Test Reactor celebrates 50-year legacy
BY COREY TAULE
In the middle of the Idaho desert sits a large
building. Pale, smudged and non-descript, it rises
and falls in uneven sections, contains only a
few windows and is surrounded by virtually no
landscaping. Wisps of steam rise out from the large
cooling towers and disappear into a clear, blue sky.
The core of the Advanced
Test Reactor at power,
exhibiting the blue
Cherenkov Effect.