A Brief History of: The HTRE no.3 Reactor Meltdown (Short Documentary)

#NuclearHistory #Nuclearflight #History

During the 1950’s atomic energy was considered for pretty much everything, nuclear tanks, nuclear cars, nuclear trains & of course nuclear planes. This brought about the General Electric Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment (HTRE) and its ill fated power excursion. Unlike many of the reactors spoken about on this channel you can actually list this one as its parked up outside the EBR-1 Reactor building at the Idaho National Laboratory.

Help the Channel Grow Like, Comment & Subscribe!

Equipment used in this video:
Rode NTG3, Audient ID4, MacBook Pro 16, Hitfilm, Garage Band
Check out My Twitter:

Check out these other great channels:

Sources:

[alphaadhito]

The only thing that needs to be refueled in the plane is the crew :)

[dimitrijenovakovic]

I think a nuclear powered jet plane is the most '50 thing ever

[hodge]

Scientist 1: "Jets are pretty cool."
Scientist 2: "Nukes are pretty cool too."
They both pause as their eyes meet. "You thinking what I'm thinking....?"
Smooth jazz starts playing in the background.
And that children is how a nuclear jet is made.

[Damien.D]

The nuclear locomotive mentioned here was an interesting and very innovative design. The reactor was meant to be of the molten-salt type, a technology proposed nowadays as a future generation breeder reactor. The locomotive studies came as far as mechanical studies to make the reactor safe enough in case of a train wreck. If it was made, it would have been the largest, longest, heaviest locomotive ever made, but simple logic prevented it to happen (it's cheaper to have land based nuclear plants and overhead wires....)
The P&W aircraft reactor project also was a molten salt. Only 3 MSR were ever made in fact. All suffered meltdown, because meltdown is a *design feature* not a *failure* :P

[benhawke]

They ran more tests on those reactor jets all the way up to the late 80's and my dad was on the last team to run them up the last time. I was on the team that restored them and EBR-1 to turn EBR-1 into a museum. Those reactor jets are huge. From a distance, you'd think that your looking at a building.

[rickpercinky]

Fun fact. HTRE-1 and HTRE-2 are both available for public viewing at the EBR-1 historic landmark. It's a pretty cool museum.

[Koozomec]

Somewhere : *Meltdown*
Plainly Difficult : *Who summoned me ?*

[Bradonomous]

i’m a former scientist with a training in theoretical physics. your content is excellent and incredibly well researched. also, you are able to explain a fiendishly difficult subject without dumbing down anything.

[MrsRabbit]

Scientist #3: "Sir, this would seem to be a very bad idea."
Scientist #2: blinks a few times with no comment.
Scientist #1: "yeah, but it's OUR very bad idea."

[Mamorufumio]

anyone else think that the HTRE no. 3 looks like a very early warp reactor?

[juanvaldez]

“Radiate your way through pilots” 😂 I love the dry humor.

[mattmuttley]

"Glow for me baby!" Why did i read that in Duke Nukem's voice?

[DedmenMiller]

"millirontegens" hurts my german brain.

[cgcgundersen]

I've been to EBR-1 and these things are just chilling out in the parking lot. Crazy huge. We also drove to the entrance gate for SL-1. You can't see much but still cool to find because there is nothing marking it.

[restoreleader]

Its always nice for a pilot to have an option to stop meltdown and shut down the reactor 10km above ground :D

[seanc]

Looks like a garlic press with jet engines strapped to it.

[volvo]

What an ambitious project. Absolutely insane (in a technology aspect) that a proof of concept worked. What a snapshot of the era.... Nuclear everything!

[echoberson]

Nuclear air planes? The 1950s? Suddenly the fallout universe makes even more sense.

[VoltasP]

Props were a nice tough on this one. The hand on the globe made me chuckle out loud.

[deadfreightwest]

Additional fun facts about this program. The hangar for the proposed bomber was built and is in use in central Idaho. Also, a shielded locomotive was built as a tug for the bomber, and now sits next to the two test reactors at the EBR-1 site.