Cooling Circuit

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/6.3 · 0.8s · ISO 64
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Pipes from the ANSTO HIFAR cooling circuit snake through the concrete shell. Water once flowed through these conduits, managing the intense heat of the reactor. The vital system now stands silent.

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: Cooling Circuit
Series: ANSTO HIFAR
Catalogue: AHF-024
Process: Giclée
Captured: 7 October 2022
Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/6.3
Shutter: 0.8s 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

Pipes from the HIFAR cooling circuit run through the concrete shell of the reactor building at Lucas Heights. The pipework is steel, lagged in places, painted in the colour codes for service identification. Flange connections are bolted at regular intervals. The pipe runs cross other services at the wall penetrations, the routing planned for clearance and maintenance access. The system is drained.

The HIFAR primary cooling circuit carried 10 tonnes of heavy water (D2O) at a flow rate of 285,000 gallons per hour through the reactor core. A light-water secondary circuit removed heat to cooling towers at the rate of about 80,000 gallons per day in evaporation at 10 MW full power. A helium gas blanket sat over the heavy water surface to remove radiolytic deuterium and oxygen. The reactor ran at 10 MW thermal from 20 October 1960 until shutdown in 2007.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

This intricate manifold of pipework, featuring valves, gauges, and rotometers, is part of the shield circuit cooling system at ANSTO HIFAR. Designed for precise temperature regulation, these pipes transported coolant through the concrete reactor block, into the lead shielding, and through the coils surrounding all sides of the reactor block.

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.