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 at ANSTO HIFAR, the green loading port on the left side was used for target cans that were.

Target Can Loading Port

Provenance

Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

The Target Can Loading Port at ANSTO's HIFAR reactor. This industrial machinery once handled irradiated materials, a critical part of the facility's operations. Its worn surfaces reflect its silent history.

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

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 at ANSTO HIFAR, the green loading port on the left side was used for target cans that were.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 at ANSTO HIFAR, the green loading port on the left side was used for target cans that were.Target Can Loading Port at ANSTO HIFAR, the green loading port on the left side was used for target cans that were.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Target Can Loading Port
Series
ANSTO HIFAR
Catalogue
AHF-047
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 target can loading port at ANSTO HIFAR is a circular opening in the reactor top plate, ringed with a stainless-steel collar and capped with a removable shield plug. The port is one of several in the top plate, but this one was used specifically for loading target cans containing precursor materials that became medical isotopes once exposed to the reactor's neutron flux. The shield plug is partially withdrawn in this photograph, showing the shaft below. The surrounding work area has handling equipment racked along the wall, including the lifting jigs and shielding tongs used to manipulate active material.

Medical isotopes are the product that made HIFAR matter to people who never saw it. The reactor produced molybdenum-99, technetium-99m, and other isotopes used in nuclear medicine for imaging and treatment, supplying hospitals across Australia and a significant share of the wider region. Target cans loaded through this port were irradiated for hours or days, then removed for processing in the adjacent radiochemistry buildings. Over forty-nine years HIFAR is estimated to have produced isotopes used in millions of patient procedures. The reactor was shut down in 2007 because its successor, OPAL, was already running and could supply the same isotopes more efficiently.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

The green loading port on the left side was used for target cans that were pneumatically loaded into the reactor for irradiation. These cans contained medical isotopes, crucial for diagnostic imaging and cancer treatment.

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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Articles when they're published. The history behind a place. The day of a shoot. The work between prints. No marketing, no schedule.

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