Nevada skyline fixture facing imminent demolition?
It is taller than the Empire State Building and, at 465 metres (1,527 feet) high, it is the largest free-standing structure west of the Mississippi. But the Bare Reactor Experiment – Nevada (BREN) Tower looks set for demolition. And according to DemolitionNews sources, it is likely to go out with a bang.
It was built by the Dresser-Ideco Company in Area 4 of Yucca Flat. Constructed of 51 thirty-foot sections of high tensile steel, it is supported by almost nine kilomatres (5.5 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.
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.
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. 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.
But sources suggest that discussions are underway which would see the explosive demolition of this fixture of the Nevada skyline.
More news as we receive it.
