REACTOR AT McMURDO

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30602, 19 November 1964, Page 10

REACTOR AT McMURDO

Safety f actor Inspected

The safety factor of Antarctica’s only nuclear power plant was quite comparable with tbtt of civil commercial reactors in the United States, said Mr R. E. Engelken. Mr Engelken. a member of a safety inspection team from the Atomic Energy Commission in the United States, has just spent 10 days at McMurdo Station with two other team members inspecting the nuclear plant on Observation Hill. This plant supplies all the power for the big United States Antarctic base. He said the team felt the United States Navy was doing a good job. There had been no special mission for the team other than to inspect the safety factor. Mr Engelken presumed that a report of the Inspection could be beneficial to plans the Navy has to put further nuclear plants in the Antarctic.

It was originally Intended to install one at Byrd Station, another at the South Pole and a second at McMurdo Station over a period of years but nothing had been done while the present reactor was put through its paces and teething troubles. This season the fuel core of the plant at McMurdo Station would be removed after its two years of service, to be replaced by a new core.