Experimental Plant Room Door

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/6.3 · 0.4s · ISO 64
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

The borated-concrete door to the experimental plant room at HIFAR, Lucas Heights. Constructed from concrete combined with steel shot, the door provided radiation shielding for maintenance access at reactor shutdown. HIFAR operated as Australia's first nuclear reactor from 1958 to 2007.

Edition

Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

Limited edition
A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

$100.00 AUD

Colour

Signed, numbered, with COA. Made to order in 10 to 20 business days (framed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.

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In situ

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Experimental Plant Room Door
Series: ANSTO HIFAR
Catalogue: AHF-005
Process: Giclée
Captured: 7 October 2022
Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/6.3
Shutter: 0.4s s
ISO: 64
Focal length: 14 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 mm
Location: Lucas Heights, New South Wales, Australia
Authenticity: C2PA verified provenance →
Recognised by: Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards

02 LOCATION

Lucas Heights, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

The borated-concrete door to the experimental plant room at HIFAR sits in the wall to the left of the photograph. The door is constructed from concrete combined with steel shot, the composite providing radiation shielding for maintenance access when the reactor was at shutdown. The face of the door is plain industrial finish. The wall around it is concrete. A heavy operating handle sits at standing height.

HIFAR had thirty horizontal and twenty-eight vertical experimental holes, with six neutron beam instruments mounted around the reactor across its operational life. The experimental facilities supported neutron-beam materials science, irradiation of high-purity silicon for the semiconductor industry, and the production of medical isotopes including molybdenum-99 and technetium-99m. The reactor was permanently shut down on 30 January 2007.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

The plant room door on the right is constructed of borated concrete, a composite material made from concrete and steel shot. This specialized design provided essential radiation shielding, minimizing workers’ exposure to radioactivity from within the plant room.

Brett Patman

The series

ANSTO HIFAR

2022 · 49 photographs

At 11:15 pm on Sunday 26 January 1958, Australia Day, the High Flux Australian Reactor went critical for the first time with 11 of 25 fuel elements loaded. The men in the control room had come from Oak Ridge, Chalk River and Harwell. HIFAR was Australia's first nuclear reactor.

View all in this series →

05 SIZE GUIDE

Print sizes

The anatomy view shows what this finish is as a physical object: paper margin, mat band, frame depth, acrylic profile. The comparison strip shows how each size sits relative to the others at true scale. Click a size or a finish to update both.