IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY
Auxiliary (originally Army) Reactor Area
The Auxiliary (originally Army) Reactor Area (ARA), located on 20 acres in south-central INL, had four separate operational areas. The ARA-I and ARA-II facilities were both constructed in 1957. ARA-I was built to support the Stationary Low Power Reactor No. 1 (SL-1), which was stationed at the ARA-II compound. The three-acre ARA-II included the SL-1 Reactor building, eight support facilities such as a guardhouse, a well house, a chlorination building, and a decontamination and laydown building; a water storage tank; an electrical substation; an aboveground heating oil tank; an underground hazardous waste storage tank; and belowground power, sewer, and water systems.
The SL-1 reactor began operation in August 1958. After operating intermittently for approximately two years, on January 3, 1961 an accident, which was the first fatal nuclear accident in the U.S., destroyed the SL-1 reactor. At that time ARA-1 served as the staging area for the emergency response and subsequent decontamination. The reactor building was removed and the support facilities and office buildings were decontaminated. On June 22, 1962, 18 months after the accident, ARA-II was reopened and used for hot cell operations, materials research, and laboratory operations including sample preparation and inspection. The three main buildings were converted into welding shops and offices and used until 1984. In 1985 the site was characterized and slated for decontamination and dismantlement (D&D). ARA-II was formally shut down in 1986 and ARA-I followed in 1988. In 1993 funds were appropriated for D&D activities and the process began on October 1. The SL-1 burial ground, which contained debris from the accident, was capped and fenced in 1996. D&D was completed for ARA-II in 1997 and for ARA-I in 2000.
Both ARA-III and ARA-IV were built in the late 1950s. ARA-III, which was completed in 1959, held the Army Gas-Cooled Reactor, experiments with which were discontinued in 1961. ARA-IV housed the Mobile Low Power Reactor-1, which was used from 1957 through 1964. The year before, ARA-III was modified to support ARA-IV and continued to do so until 1965 when the Army Reactor Program was phased out. In 1969 two buildings for laboratory and office space were erected at ARA-III. In 1989 the facility was shut down. D&D began in 1990 and was finished in 1999. ARA-IV also accommodated the Nuclear Effects Reactor from 1967 until 1970. The area remained closed until 1975 when it was temporarily used for welding. From 1984 to 1985, the area underwent D&D, which left only a control building, a bunker, a sanitary waste system, and two buried leach pits. After 1985 the site was used to occasionally test explosives. After 1985 the site was used to occasionally test explosives in powdered-metal manufacture experiments. The area has since been designated as the Power Line Testing Area for CITRC and is used to conduct tests to support INL's Homeland Security mission.
SL-1 Reactor
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