"They must realize that they may have given the demonstration of a gift to the world that provides energy for a millennium," says Leon Walters, retired Division Director from the Argonne National Laboratory.

On December 20, 1951 a reaction occurred that would change the future of electricity. The Experimental Breeder Reactor, or EBR-I, was the first to use atomic energy peacefully in the world, by powering four simple light bulbs.

"I don't think I realized at the time how important it was, no I really don't," says Weslie E. Molen, research technician at EBRI.

By creating a reactor that could safely handle the radioactive material and with the pioneer determination of nuclear energy, electricity flowed.

"We went out there, wired them four light bulbs to it and plugged them in and they lit up. We were generating our own power," says Earl J. Barrow, machinist at EBRI.

"That was the most electricity a reactor had generated any where in the world at that point," says Don Miley, with the INL.

The Experimental Breeder Reactor-I used uranium atoms to create a reaction that made steam, to turn wind turbines, making electricity.

It's called a breeder reactor because it actually creates more fuel than the reactor burns.

"We thought there were very limited supplies of Uranium around the world, so this was a way to extend the Uranium supplies by operating by breeder reactors," says Miley.

Years later Uranium deposits were found across the world and the emphasis on breeder reactors shifted.

"At the time the U.S. was saying, here's a virtually unlimited power supply that we're going to deploy. We're going to have all this electricity, but when those grand expectations came about there were other things that hadn't been thought of," says Miley.

Focusing on the costs and safety issues. Questions that continue to plague the future of nuclear energy in the U.S.

"This was very small. There was a lot of room for modification, so by 64, they had done everything they could with this reactor," says Miley.

EBR-I now operates solely as a museum, but none the less, EBR-I was a success as the birth place of atomic power and as a result, Uranium Reactors generate 20 percent of the electricity produced in the United States.

"There's no doubt in my mind that the technology that these people demonstrated December 20, 1951, will in fact be one of the truest historical accomplishments we've ever seen," says Walters.

Other major milestones followed quickly, proof that nuclear reactors could produce or "breed" more fuel than they consume, lighting the first American city with nuclear generated electricity. A big idea, that switched four light bulbs on, changing the world.