Control Room Right Cross View

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/7.1 · 0.3s · ISO 64
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

The left-side wall of the HIFAR control room at Lucas Heights, lined with instrumentation panels carrying dials, switches and indicator lights along the full run of the wall. The room kept much of its original layout through to the reactor's closure, operated first under the Australian Atomic Energy Commission from 1953 and later by ANSTO from 1987.

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 5 to 10 business days (unframed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.

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In situ

Control Room Right Cross View at ANSTO HIFAR, black-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Control Room Right Cross View at ANSTO HIFAR, raw timber-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Control Room Right Cross View at ANSTO HIFAR, glass print displayed in situ on a wall.

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Control Room Right Cross View
Series: ANSTO HIFAR
Catalogue: AHF-017
Process: Giclée
Captured: 7 October 2022
Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/7.1
Shutter: 0.3s s
ISO: 64
Focal length: 14 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 297 × 210 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

Instrument panels line three walls of the HIFAR control room at Lucas Heights. The panels carry analogue gauges, toggle switches, and indicator lights across their full surface. A desk phone sits on the operator's console. Two red fuel cans rest on the floor at one end of the room, beside a megaphone. The lighting overhead is fluorescent strip, some tubes out. The room is laid out for two or three operators on shift at a time.

The HIFAR control room was the working centre of Australia's first nuclear reactor, staffed around the clock through every day of the reactor's operational life. Operators monitored neutron flux, coolant flow, control rod positions, and containment integrity from this room. The reactor was permanently shut down at 10:25 am on 30 January 2007, after 49 years and 4 days of operation. The control room was retained for the decommissioning team and is now part of the Phase A removal scope.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

This perspective of the ANSTO HIFAR control room highlights the left-side wall, where an array of panels housed essential reactor control instruments. From monitoring coolant flow to overseeing neutron flux, each component played a critical role in the safe and precise operation of Australia’s first nuclear reactor.

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.