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It was in 1957 when the bulldozers were in action preparing the ground where the first Italian reactor would stand. The place chosen by the Italian Committee for Nuclear Research (CNRN – Comitato Nazionale per le Ricerche Nucleari) was Ispra. The pictures and films show the machines and workers on the job; the scene is one of simple, bare land, where the inhabitants, with the war behind them, were watching the first steps of what would mark a significant turning-point. The story of the reactor “Ispra 1” and of the associated research centre is told in a long documentary film, which can be seen on YouTube and on the official site of the JRC, which has gathered amateur pictures and films, and which reconstructs the period from the end of the 1950s, until the abandonment of nuclear power, in 1973.

The reactor and the research centre were built in the years 1957-1959, by the CNRN, which later became the Italian Committee for Nuclear Energy (CNEN, Comitato Nazionale per l’Energia Nucleare). In accordance with the agreement ratified by the Italian Parliament on 1 August 1960 (Law No. 906), on 1 March 1961, the Centre in Ispra came under the management of Euratom, with the exception of the Reactor “Ispra 1”, which, until 1 March 1963, was run by the CNEN. This reactor, which was similar to the American CP5 and was used for research, continued to work until 1973.