Atomic City Days ... by bicycle

  Editor's note: Dennis Weber, a Yuma-area resident and retired Antelope Union High School teacher, has been biking across the West this summer. this is one in a series of stories he's writing about his experiences.

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 On July 17, 1955, in Arco, Idaho, approximately 2,000 kilowatts of electricity flowed through local power lines for about two hours, making Arco the first town in the world powered by electricity generated from an atomic power plant. Power was supplied by a local atomic reactor on the INEL (Idaho National Engineering Laboratory) located nearby.

 To celebrate being the first atomic powered city in the world, Arco holds its Atomic City Days every July to commemorate the occasion. Today, the city gets its power off the local grid, the same as any other city in Idaho, but the city doesn't want to forget its roots and besides, it's a great reason for a parade, a steak cookout, a rodeo, an arts and crafts fair, an awesome breakfast in the park and a display of restored cars.

  Arco is a small town of only 1,000 people located about 100 miles west of Idaho Falls. It is still a town that exists to provide support for the surrounding farms and ranches, but it is having increased tourist traffic due to its central location in the Lost River Valley and its proximity to King Mountain, one of the top hang-gliding locations in the world. There are several excellent trout streams within a short drive of Arco, notably both the Big and Little Lost Rivers, as well as Birch Creek and the Lemhi River.

 Just a short 18-mile drive to the west is the Craters of the Moon National Monument, which attracts almost 250,000 visitors per year from all over the world. The 750,000-acre area is home to some of the most spectacular volcanic formations in the U.S. and at one time, areas of the park served as training grounds for astronauts on their way to a lunar mission. Admission to the park is $10 unless you are over the age of 62 and have a Senior Access Card, in which case, it's free. Campsites are available for $10 per night.

  Another major attraction in the area is the EBR-1 (Experimental Breeder Reactor-One), where the first usable electricity was generated by atomic power on Dec. 20, 1951, when a string of four light bulbs was lit from a steam-driven generator powered by atomic pile-heated water. This was also the first reactor to generate more fuel than it consumed.

 EBR-1 is free and open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily May through October, and it is either self-guiding or you can have a tour guide.

 On the tour, you will be able to see the notorious SCRAM button, which is meant to be pushed in case of an overload or a meltdown. I always assumed that SCRAM meant that a technician hit the button and scrammed out of the building as fast as he could, but the real meaning is much more interesting.

 The first atomic piles needed a method of quick shutdown, so physicists rigged a rod of solid cadmium on a rope over the top of the pile. They then stationed a technician on top of the pile with an axe to cut the rope and drop the cadmium rod into the pile, thus stopping the atomic fission reaction. The technician's official title was Safety Control Rod Axe Man, or SCRAM.

  So be sure and stop in at Arco, particularly during the latter part of July to catch all the festivities. But it is also an excellent central point for trout fishing, sightseeing or hiking through Craters of the Moon. And the only time the city glows in the dark is when the street lights come on after sundown.