giganova
Well-known
I flew from Washington D.C. to San Francisco and from there to Idaho last week to watch the eclipse and take a few pictures.
The next day I drove to nearby Atomic City, the site of the first nuclear power plant (EBR-I) that powered the nearby town Arco, Idaho, in 1951. Once the pride of the nuclear age, Atomic City is no longer a pretty sight. Mostly abandoned buildings in the desert in the middle of nowhere.
It took me a while to find the courage and walk into this sketchy looking bar -- but the bar turned out to be a wonderful surprise, with very friendly and welcoming people inside!
Right next to the bar was this guy wrenching on this strange looking car. He told me that he is 65 years old and he and his (older) buddy decided to build racing cars four months ago. The car in the picture has 550 horse powers and is a real piece of art & mechanical engineering. Each Friday they are racing on a dirt track across the street. Wish I could have stayed to see the race!
Then I went to nearby Arco, the first town powered by nuclear energy. Not a pretty sight either these days.
I couldn't resists and had to try the "atomic burger" at Pickels. Best burger I had in my entire life!
Then I went to see the first nuclear reactor in the world, EBR-I. I couldn't believe that place, just a small building in the desert with zero protection from the radiation in case things went wrong. Today, EBR-I is a museum, you just walk through the door and explore it yourself. The two strange structure are -- get this! -- nuclear propulsion systems for planes. Yes, nuclear propelled aircrafts almost became a reality!
And this is how you control a nuclear reactor: you just turn a few dials and switches and voila: energy! What could possible go wrong, except for a partial meltdown of the plutonium core that they had in 1955?
I know, not exactly fine art photography, but that's all I could do in one day.
Hope you enjoyed, thanks for watching!
The next day I drove to nearby Atomic City, the site of the first nuclear power plant (EBR-I) that powered the nearby town Arco, Idaho, in 1951. Once the pride of the nuclear age, Atomic City is no longer a pretty sight. Mostly abandoned buildings in the desert in the middle of nowhere.
It took me a while to find the courage and walk into this sketchy looking bar -- but the bar turned out to be a wonderful surprise, with very friendly and welcoming people inside!
Right next to the bar was this guy wrenching on this strange looking car. He told me that he is 65 years old and he and his (older) buddy decided to build racing cars four months ago. The car in the picture has 550 horse powers and is a real piece of art & mechanical engineering. Each Friday they are racing on a dirt track across the street. Wish I could have stayed to see the race!
Then I went to nearby Arco, the first town powered by nuclear energy. Not a pretty sight either these days.
I couldn't resists and had to try the "atomic burger" at Pickels. Best burger I had in my entire life!
Then I went to see the first nuclear reactor in the world, EBR-I. I couldn't believe that place, just a small building in the desert with zero protection from the radiation in case things went wrong. Today, EBR-I is a museum, you just walk through the door and explore it yourself. The two strange structure are -- get this! -- nuclear propulsion systems for planes. Yes, nuclear propelled aircrafts almost became a reality!
And this is how you control a nuclear reactor: you just turn a few dials and switches and voila: energy! What could possible go wrong, except for a partial meltdown of the plutonium core that they had in 1955?
I know, not exactly fine art photography, but that's all I could do in one day.
Hope you enjoyed, thanks for watching!
