I enjoyed Alex DeVolpi's article on reactor safety in the January 2013 issue of Physics and Society. However, the Idaho National Laboratory was named incorrectly in the capsule biography at the bottom of his paper. From about 1978 through 1994, the facility was known as Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. It was briefly known as Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, and in 2005, it received its present name.
From about 1950 until 2005, Argonne National Laboratory had a way station at my lab, known as Argonne National Laboratory West. I expect that most of Alex's interactions in Idaho were conducted at Argonne West. The Argonne folks built two breeder reactors in Idaho, and one remains: Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 (EBR 1), the first reactor in the world to generate electricity from nuclear power. EBR 1 is now a national historical site, open to the public. Please visit if you are touring the West one summer — Idaho Falls is just 90 miles from Yellowstone Park.
Gus Caffrey, Ph.D.
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