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| BORAX-III facility. |
As a result of the BORAX-I and BORAX-II tests, A program was undertaken in March of 1955 to modify the BORAX reactor to produce electrical energy of the order of 2000 kW, enough to provide the town of Arco, Idaho, with complete electrical service. At that point in time, no city in the world had been powered entirely by nuclear energy.
This modified reactor became BORAX-III. The previous BORAX reactors were not designed to produce electricity, so a turbine generator was added to the facility to convert the thermal energy into electricity. The modified facility was capable of generating 12 MW of thermal energy and 2300 kW of electrical energy.
On July 17, 1955, electricity produced by BORAX-III supplied the town of Arco, Idaho with its entire supply of electrical power. For two hours, BORAX-III generated approximately 2000 kW of electicity, with 500 kW used to power the BORAX facility, 1000 kW used to power the Central Facilities Area at NRTS, and 500 kW to light the city of Arco, Idaho. BORAX-III became the first nuclear power plant in the world to generate electricity for an entire city.
BORAX-III was used until 1956.
