BR1 - 50th Anniversary

Fifty years ago, we lived in a different world. The war years were over and industry was flourishing, many new products entered the market, the economy was in top gear and we could already clearly sense the atmosphere of the “golden sixties”.

Here and there, cars of French, German, English or Italian origin appeared in the streets and who does not remember the American limousines with their extended bumpers in shiny chrome, their six or eight cylinder engines and their consumption of 20 litres and more per 100 km. Japanese cars were unknown in those days and the idea “made in Japan” was still unheard-of. Motorways were scarce; the motorway Brussels-Ostend was opened in 1956, there were neither speed limits, nor traffic jams and everyone aged 18 and over was allowed to drive a car without a driving licence or any other red tape. The mandatory car insurance was not introduced until July ‘56.

The first television sets started to appear. At first, a bit tentatively in bars and restaurants, then little by little in people’s living rooms. Television sets at that time were little round boxes with images in black and white and only two channels for Belgium. People tried everything to catch the smallest glimpse of images from the neighbouring countries. That is why, for many years, television aerials on the rooftops gave a chaotic image of our affluent society.

James Dean was the “Rebel without a cause”; the absolute example of the post-war generation. Brigitte Bardot made us dream of erotic (a word that was known, yet not spoken) adventures that today would even be allowed in the most prudish television programme.

Rik Van Steenbergen became the new world cycling champion and in the same year the popular champion Stan Ockers died after a fall on the cycling track of Antwerp.

In 1956, the mining catastrophe in Bois du Cazier near Marcinelle shocked Belgium; 262 lives were lost.

International politics was dominated by the two superpowers: the USSR with its president Nikita Khrushchev and the USA with its president Dwight Eisenhower. There was also war back then; over the Suez Canal. It was a war in which especially France, Great Britain, Israel and Egypt were involved.

Nuclear energy began to grow. The first British nuclear power plant of Calder Hall was put into service; a uranium graphite reactor with natural uranium as fuel, carbon dioxide as coolant and an electric power of 70 MW.

In Belgium, at SCK•CEN (back then Studiecentrum voor de Toepassingen van de Kernenergie-Centre d’Etude pour les Applications de l’Énergie Nucléaires or STK-CEAN; Research Centre for the Applications of Nuclear Energy) on Friday May 11, 1956, the first Belgian research reactor became critical. This was an air-cooled reactor with graphite as moderator, natural uranium as fuel and a total thermal power of 4 MW.

The BR1 was born!

Jan Van der Auwera