Personnel Air Lock Door at ANSTO HIFAR, this industrial photograph showcases the personnel airlock within the HIFAR reactor.
Personnel Air Lock Door at ANSTO HIFAR, this industrial photograph showcases the personnel airlock within the HIFAR reactor.

Personnel Air Lock Door

Provenance

Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

The heavy, riveted personnel air lock door fills the frame at ANSTO HIFAR. Its industrial grey surface suggests a sealed environment. This portal once regulated entry into Australia's first nuclear reactor.

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
Size
Type
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

Personnel Air Lock Door at ANSTO HIFAR, this industrial photograph showcases the personnel airlock within the HIFAR reactor.Personnel Air Lock Door at ANSTO HIFAR, this industrial photograph showcases the personnel airlock within the HIFAR reactor.Personnel Air Lock Door at ANSTO HIFAR, this industrial photograph showcases the personnel airlock within the HIFAR reactor.Personnel Air Lock Door at ANSTO HIFAR, this industrial photograph showcases the personnel airlock within the HIFAR reactor.Personnel Air Lock Door at ANSTO HIFAR, this industrial photograph showcases the personnel airlock within the HIFAR reactor.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Personnel Air Lock Door
Series
ANSTO HIFAR
Catalogue
AHF-045
Process
Giclée
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size
290 × 200 mm
Location
Lucas Heights, New South Wales, Australia
Recognised by
Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards
03 THE STORY

About this print

The personnel air lock door to the HIFAR reactor containment building fills the frame. The door is steel-faced, heavily riveted, fitted with a manual handwheel at standing height for operating the locking mechanism. In normal operation, the door opened and closed under electrical control; in a power outage, the handwheel allowed manual operation, requiring 27 full turns to unlock. The door is currently in the unlocked position.

HIFAR's containment building was maintained at negative pressure throughout the reactor's 49 years of operation, from criticality on 26 January 1958 to shutdown on 30 January 2007. The personnel air lock controlled entry and exit while preserving the pressure differential. The reactor was the High Flux Australian Reactor, Australia's first nuclear reactor, designed by Head Wrightson Processes Ltd of the UK with consulting architects Stephenson and Turner of Sydney.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

This industrial photograph showcases the personnel airlock within the HIFAR reactor containment building, a critical component for maintaining safety and pressure control.

Brett Patman

ANSTO HIFAR

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.

Anatomy · true ratio
07 MORE FROM ANSTO HIFAR

48 other prints in this series

All prints
Helium Pumps at ANSTO HIFAR, this system played a vital role in reactor maintenance by passing helium across the surface.
Helium Pumps $100.00
Top Plate to Basement at ANSTO HIFAR, the reactor hall at HIFAR drops away from the overhead crane gantry down.
Top Plate to Basement $100.00
HIFAR Control Room at ANSTO HIFAR, this control desk at ANSTO HIFAR was manned 24 hours a day by accredited operators.
HIFAR Control Room $100.00
Cooling Circuit at ANSTO HIFAR, this intricate manifold of pipework, featuring valves, gauges, and rotometers, is part.
Cooling Circuit $100.00
08 BY POST · NO SPAM

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