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Simulated
Japanese houses sit at the base of the 1,527-foot BREN
Tower. The tower was located in Yucca Flat from 1962
to 1966, and then dismantled and moved to Jackass Flats.
REECo
photo. |
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The
BREN Tower 1,527 feet tall, has been a focal point of attention
ever since it was erected on the Nevada Test Site in 1962.
During
its 30 years, it has been part of the Yucca and Jackass Flat
skylines, and a platform for two important experiments --Bare
Reactor Experiment, Nevada (BREN), and the High Energy Neutron
Reactions Experiment (HENRE).
It was
built by the Dresser-Ideco Company in Area 4 of Yucca Flat.
Constructed of 51 thirty-foot sections of high tensile steel,
the structure is higher than the Empire State Building's 1,472
feet. It is supported by 5 1/2 miles of guy wires designed
to withstand winds exceeding 120 miles per hour. The tower
was equipped with an outside hoist to lift scientific equipment,
and a two-person elevator inside the tower which moved at
100 feet per minute. The tower weighs 345 tons.
It was
prefabricated and shipped to Nevada on nine trailer trucks.
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The first experiment
(from which the BREN tower got its name) was the Bare Reactor Experiment,
Nevada. It was a major project of the Civil Effects Test Organization
of the Atomic Energy Commission's Division of Biology and Medicine.
The experiment was designed to develop a way to accurately estimate
the radiation doses received by selected survivors of the atomic bombings
of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan.
Several simulated
Japanese houses were built in 1962 at Yucca Flat for the Bare
Reactor Experiment - Nevada (BREN) from which the tower got
its name.
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A
small, unshielded (bare) reactor was mounted on the hoist car
and moved to various heights up and down the tower. Japanese-type
houses were built near the base of the tower and were bombarded
with various intensities of radiation. The scientists wanted to
determine what kind of protection the shelters provided from the
radiation of atomic weapons. |
These light-frame
simulated Japanese houses were used in the BREN test as part
of a research project to estimate radiation doses received by
survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atom bomb blasts.
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As other studies
were proposed for the tower, it became apparent that they would
be incompatible with the underground testing program. On March 27,
1966, a $380,000 contract was awarded to the Dresser-Ideco Company,
Columbus, Ohio, to dismantle the tower and move it to Jackass Flats
in Area 25.
After the tower
was erected at its new site, it was used for Operation HENRE (High
Energy Neutron Reactions Experiment), a series of radiation measurement
experiments using a small linear accelerator to provide neutrons.
HENRE was a $600,000 experiment jointly funded by the AEC and the
Department of Defense to develop information for the AEC's bio-medical
research program.
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