I was given a permit for my camera. The reactor itself is not visible since it is submerged in a tank of liquid sodium, but all the auxiliary equipment could be inspected. The reactor building is adjacent to another one called the Fuel Conditioning Facility, which had massive steel doors on the ends of air locks. The heavily-shielded spent fuel is brought in through a sort of lock. It is transferred into the circular argon-filled cell for processing.
Operators conduct the operations looking through the thick lead-glass windows.
The electrorefining procedure described above is carried out. This metal and the waste are being stored until final decisions are made about their disposal. EBR II is capable of using as fuel uranium-238 alloyed with plutonium from dismantled nuclear bombs and thus contribute to the permanent destruction of this dreadful metal. During our tour of the facility, we had to have full-body radioactivity measurements on entering and again on leaving. President Carter ordered commercial reprocessing halted in the late 1970s, and no President since has changed that decision.