Helium Pumps at ANSTO HIFAR, this system played a vital role in reactor maintenance by passing helium across the surface.

Series · 49 prints

ANSTO HIFAR

Photographed 2022
Frames 49
Camera NIKON D850
Location New South Wales, Australia
Status Decommissioning; Phase A Stage 1 began 2025
Years 1958 to 2007
Architect Stephenson and Turner
Specs DIDO-class research reactor · 10 MW thermal · Heavy-water moderated and cooled
01 ABOUT THIS SERIES

Series story

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

HIFAR, the High Flux Australian Reactor, was Australia's first nuclear reactor. It went critical at 11:15 pm on Sunday 26 January 1958 and ran for forty-nine years and four days before being permanently shut down on 30 January 2007. The reactor was the last of six DIDO-class research reactors built worldwide to cease operation.

HIFAR was built for a civil nuclear power programme that never arrived in Australia. The reactor was reinvented twice over the next half-century: first as the source of medical isotopes including technetium-99m and molybdenum-99, then as the irradiation facility that turned ultra-pure silicon into the doped semiconductor wafers the global electronics industry relied on through the 1970s and 1980s. It was opened by Prime Minister Menzies on 18 April 1958 in front of nine hundred staff and guests, replaced by OPAL in 2006 (designed and built by INVAP of Argentina), and named a National Engineering Landmark in 2001. ARPANSA granted its Phase A decommissioning licence on 4 December 2024.

Engineers Australia (HIFAR NEL nomination), W.H. Roberts (The Design and Construction of HIFAR, 1958) and ANSTO (End of an era for Australia's first nuclear reactor)

02 TIMELINE

Chronology

1955
1958
1958
2001
2006
2007
2024
03 PRINTS

Prints in this series

Helium Pumps at ANSTO HIFAR, this system played a vital role in reactor maintenance by passing helium across the surface.
Helium Pumps
Top Plate to Basement at ANSTO HIFAR, the reactor hall at HIFAR drops away from the overhead crane gantry down.
Top Plate to Basement
HIFAR Control Room at ANSTO HIFAR, this control desk at ANSTO HIFAR was manned 24 hours a day by accredited operators.
HIFAR Control Room
Cooling Circuit at ANSTO HIFAR, this intricate manifold of pipework, featuring valves, gauges, and rotometers, is part.
Cooling Circuit
Polar Crane at ANSTO HIFAR, seen here from the control room level, the crane’s 25-tonne working load was intentionally.
Polar Crane
Basement Walkway Adjacent to Reactor at ANSTO HIFAR, the blue pipes running through this section of ANSTO HIFAR were.
Basement Walkway Adjacent to Reactor
Basement Emergency Airlock at ANSTO HIFAR, the reactor building at ANSTO HIFAR incorporated airlocks to regulate access.
Basement Emergency Airlock
Top Plate Walkway at ANSTO HIFAR, this walkway provides access to the HIFAR reactor top plate, where operations such.
Top Plate Walkway
Fuel Element Flask at ANSTO HIFAR, this 19.47-tonne flask was one of two types used in reactor operations at ANSTO HIFAR:.
Fuel Element Flask
Vehicle Airlock at ANSTO HIFAR, this vehicle airlock provided basement access for transporting goods and materials.
Vehicle Airlock
Top Plate View at ANSTO HIFAR, the reactor top plate sits at the centre of the containment hall, a broad steel disc studded.
Top Plate View
Basement D20 Plantroom at ANSTO HIFAR, heavy water storage vessel 1V3 fills the right side of the frame, its curved steel.
Basement D20 Plantroom
Personnel Air Lock Door at ANSTO HIFAR, this industrial photograph showcases the personnel airlock within the HIFAR reactor.
Personnel Air Lock Door
HIFAR Control Room Left Side at ANSTO HIFAR, six teams of four highly trained technical staff worked in shifts to operate.
HIFAR Control Room Left Side
Electrical Cable Penetration at ANSTO HIFAR, this access port for electrical cable penetration was one of two key entry.
Electrical Cable Penetration
Fuel Transfer Flask at ANSTO HIFAR, designed for the secure transport of nuclear fuel elements, the flask was lined.
Fuel Transfer Flask
No 1 Storage Block at ANSTO HIFAR, dozens of circular plugs are set into the reactor's charge face, each stamped "FUEL.
No 1 Storage Block
Experimental Plant Room Door at ANSTO HIFAR, the plant room door on the right is constructed of borated concrete.
Experimental Plant Room Door
Top Plate Beneath Polar Crane at ANSTO HIFAR, yellow lab coats hang on the mesh walls of the right walkway, worn.
Top Plate Beneath Polar Crane
TAS and Polar Crane at ANSTO HIFAR, the Triple Axis Spectrometer (TAS) sits on a literal gun turret.
TAS and Polar Crane
Reactor Containment Building at ANSTO HIFAR, the white, round structure is the biological containment building, serving.
Reactor Containment Building
HIFAR Control Room Desk Controller at ANSTO HIFAR, the early 1980s computer system controller, part of the data acquisition.
HIFAR Control Room Desk Controller
Control Room Cross View at ANSTO HIFAR, analogue gauge panels line three walls of the HIFAR control room at Lucas Heights.
Control Room Cross View
Medium Resolution Powder Diffractometer at ANSTO HIFAR, this view captures the core operational area of the ANSTO HIFAR.
Medium Resolution Powder Diffractometer
The Reactor Top Plate at ANSTO HIFAR, the red silicon flask on the right of the top plate was designed to safely lower.
The Reactor Top Plate
Polar Crane Catwalk at ANSTO HIFAR, this industrial photograph captures the elevated catwalk inside the HIFAR reactor.
Polar Crane Catwalk
Top Plate To 5-Meter Level at ANSTO HIFAR, this cross-sectional view reveals the vertical complexity of the HIFAR reactor.
Top Plate To 5-Meter Level
Fuel Storage and Flask at ANSTO HIFAR, a heavy cylindrical fuel handling mechanism rises from floor level through multiple.
Fuel Storage and Flask
Helium Purification Unit at ANSTO HIFAR, designed to remove impurities from the circulating helium gas, this system ensured.
Helium Purification Unit
Helium Storage Vessel at ANSTO HIFAR, this 500-cubic-foot helium tank at ANSTO HIFAR played a vital role in maintaining.
Helium Storage Vessel
Mezzanine Level Irradiation Rig Control Consoles at ANSTO HIFAR, photographed 2022.
Mezzanine Level Irradiation Rig Control Consoles
Containment Building and Auxiallry Buildings at ANSTO HIFAR, a large white cylindrical containment building rises.
Containment Building and Auxiallry Buildings
Top Plate and Mezzanine at ANSTO HIFAR, this overview of the HIFAR reactor highlights several of the six Fan Coil Unit Vent.
Top Plate and Mezzanine
Storage Block at ANSTO HIFAR, the No.
Storage Block
Top Plate and Exit Walkway at ANSTO HIFAR, another view inside the containment building, showcasing the complex network.
Top Plate and Exit Walkway
Silicon Irradiation Handling Flask at ANSTO HIFAR, the green equipment on the right is a silicon irradiation flask.
Silicon Irradiation Handling Flask
Irradiation Rig Handling Flasks at ANSTO HIFAR, this image from ANSTO’s HIFAR reactor highlights the specialized rig flasks.
Irradiation Rig Handling Flasks
Control Room Right Cross View at ANSTO HIFAR, this perspective of the ANSTO HIFAR control room highlights the left-side wall.
Control Room Right Cross View
Target Can Loading Port at ANSTO HIFAR, the green loading port on the left side was used for target cans that were.
Target Can Loading Port
Top Plate Viewing Platform at ANSTO HIFAR, the reactor hall at HIFAR curves upward in a wide concrete drum.
Top Plate Viewing Platform
Mezzanine Level View at ANSTO HIFAR, standing on the mezzanine level, this image provides a sweeping view across the HIFAR.
Mezzanine Level View
Top Plate From Catwalk at ANSTO HIFAR, the reactor hall at HIFAR drops away below the catwalk.
Top Plate From Catwalk
Mezzanine to Vehicle Airlock at ANSTO HIFAR, green coolant pipes run beneath a corrugated steel ceiling.
Mezzanine to Vehicle Airlock
Hazard Notice Board at ANSTO HIFAR, a radiation monitor and tally board were essential tools for tracking the contents.
Hazard Notice Board
Catwalk to Storage Block at ANSTO HIFAR, this perspective from the outer edge of ANSTO HIFAR’s containment building offers.
Catwalk to Storage Block
Thermal Column at ANSTO HIFAR, a heavy shielding wall fills the frame, marked "FACE-1" at the top.
Thermal Column
Shield Cooling Circuit Head Tank at ANSTO HIFAR, positioned within the containment building, it was a vital component.
Shield Cooling Circuit Head Tank
Flask and Top Plate at ANSTO HIFAR, positioned beside a 19.5-tonne rig flask, this view captures the top plate of the HIFAR.
Flask and Top Plate
B42 Access Corridor at ANSTO HIFAR, the personnel entrance at HIFAR, once a secondary access point, now serves.
B42 Access Corridor
04 ABOUT THE PRINTS

How they’re made

Paper

Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm. Metallic Gloss 260 gsm for acrylic-mounted prints.

Sizes

Five sizes, XS to XL, from $100. Open editions in XS and S, limited editions in M, L and XL.

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Production

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