Craters of the Moon to Grand Teton - August 30th

 Today was a travel day from Craters of the Moon to Grand Teton National Park.  We did a quick walk in the morning at Craters since we didn’t have a super long drive.  Here are a couple pics.  There were some formations here that we hadn’t seen in other parts of the park.

On the way to Teton we went through the Idaho National Laboratories, part of the Department of Energy.    The complex is 890 square miles, there are 4 reactors on site (not all in use) and the company employs 6,300 people.  The facility is and always has been for experimentation, development and testing.

The facility we toured was the first nuclear plant.  Construction started  in 1949 and the plant started running in mid 1951.  The reactor was a working reactor for 13 years.  We were given a tour by a college student majoring in communications.  She was very good and provided alot of information. 

One thing that I found particularly interesting is how small the actual rods were.  They are 10 feet tall, made of stainless steel.  However, only 9 inches has uranium pellets in it and the rods were much thinner than I thought.  I always had the impression that they were these huge rods that you needed a truck to move.  Not sure where I got that from, but…

This plant was also a breeding plant which meant that they created plutonium as part of the process because they thought that uranium was a limited resource.  This did not turn out to be true.

In December of 1951 they lit 4 lightbulbs.  The next day, they provided the power for the entire building.

They did do a transportation experiment after 3 Mile Island to prove that it was save to transport the spent rods.  However, they were not able to convince the public of this fact.

In 1966 this site became a national historic landmark.  

The building contained a hot cell which is used to study spent rods.  The glass is 39 inches thick with lead in each pain.  They have a robotic arm to manipulate the items in the cell.  

One of the buildings on the grounds was used by the navy for training for nuclear subs.

The other project that was worked on at this facility but never came to fruition was a nuclear airplane.  This was during the cold war when it was rumored that the Soviet Union had one.  

There was a “funny” story behind the SCRAM button that was used to shut down in an emergency.  The term came from 1942 at Chicago Pile-I, the world’s first nuclear reactor.  A long thin control rod of cadmium which can slow down or stop a nuclear reaction by absorbing neutrons was suspended by a rope over a hole in the Chicago reactor.  A sturdy young male physicist stood by the rope holding an axe.  If the reaction got out of control the young man’s job was to swing his axe and cut the rope, plunging the rod into its hole and shutting down the reaction instantly.  He was the Safety Control Rod Axe Man or SCRAM.

You just never know what you will come across when you are on the road.

We got in settled in Teton and there was a Ranger evening talk about Moose.  Here are some interesting facts about moose:

1. They are the largest member of the deer family
2. Can be up to 7 ft tall at the shoulders
3. They can run 35 miles an hour.
4. They can go under water up to 18ft deep because they like to eat aquatic plants.  Moose are herbivores.   The valves in the nostrils know the pressure difference between air and water and close when in water.
5. Their long nose is an adaptation to cold weather.  It allows the air to warm before it hits the lungs.
6. They have two coats of fur to help keep them warm in the winter.  However, in hotter summers it is a detriment as they do not shed any of the fur.
7. Antlers are for protection and competition for females.  Antlers can weigh up to 75lbs each and can be 5 feet across.  They do lose their antlers in Jan/Feb and they regrow in the spring.  Imagine carrying 150lbs around on your head.
8. Calfs stay with their moms for a year.
9. They only mate to produce.  Overall they are solitary animals.

We did get to see a moose a little later in the evening, but it was a little bit away and it was getting dark, but it was a sighting.

Til next time…