“Record Steam Heat Peak Produced at Nearby Reactor”
In nearby Santa Susana record steam heat was produced by the Atomics International Sodium Reactor Experiment station at Southern California Edison Co. steam generating plant attaining a temperature of 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. The power reactor in picture at the left, atop the Santa Susana Mountains, has been operating for 2-years and has provided heat for production of 15,335,000 kilowatt hours of electricity in the Edison installation shown at the right. Atomics International is a division of North American Aviation Inc., adjacent to the Rocketdyne Plant at Canoga Park. The record heat peak of 1008 represents an outstanding advance in the production of electricity through atomic power.
[From Wikipedia, "Santa Susana Field Laboratory":]
The Sodium Reactor Experiment-SRE was an experimental nuclear reactor that operated at the site from 1957 to 1964 and was the first commercial power plant in the world to experience a core meltdown [in July 1959!]. There was a decades-long cover-up of the incident by the U.S. Department of Energy. The operation predated environmental regulation, so early disposal techniques are not recorded in detail. Thousands of pounds of sodium coolant from the time of the meltdown are not yet accounted for. The reactor and support systems were removed in 1981 and the building torn down in 1999.
