Achievements

Argonne OutLoud Free Public Lecture
“Getting to Know Nuclear Energy: The Past, Present & Future”
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THE REACTOR TREE

The Argonne apple tree, a graphical depiction that displays the depth and scope of the Argonne reactor systems program. Check it out!

Reactors Designed by Argonne National Laboratory

The reactors listed here were all designed by Argonne National Laboratory, and nearly all were built at the laboratory's facilities in Illinois^1,3 and Idaho^2,3, with those built elsewhere noted³. The “firsts” among these reactors were many, but they include the first man-made self-sustaining neutron chain reaction, and the first generation of electricity from nuclear energy. The development of all commercial nuclear reactor types was based on both the design concepts of the Argonne reactors and on the information produced by these experiments.

References:

ORAU Team Dose Reconstruction Project for NIOSH, Technical Basis Document for the Argonne National Laboratory-East -- Site Description, ORAUT-TKBS-0036-2 (2006) [827KB]
ORAU Team Dose Reconstruction Project for NIOSH, Technical Basis Document for the Argonne National Laboratory-West -- Site Description, ORAUT-TKBS-0026-2 (2004) [434KB]
Nuclear Reactors Built, Being Built, or Planned in the United States as of June 30, 1970, TID-8200 (22nd Rev.), USAEC Division of Technical Information, (1970) [2MB].

From the late 1940s until 2004, Argonne-West in Idaho, and Argonne-East in Illinois, worked as a unified team under single management to design, build, and operate the reactors at both sites. Fourteen were built at ANL-E, fourteen were built at ANL-W, and other reactors designed by Argonne were built at Hanford and Savannah River. By 2004, all of the ANL-W reactors had been shut down. One – TREAT – has since been restarted by INL. After the merger of ANL-W and INEEL in February, 2005, the new Idaho National Laboratory became the custodian of the ANL-W reactor sites.

For details about the early history of nuclear reactors in the United States, consult the USAEC report listed at right.

Follow the links below to learn about specific Argonne reactors.

Book “Plentiful Energy: The Story of the Integral Fast Reactor” by C. E. Till and Y. Chang gives the history of the IFR at Argonne. Available on Amazon.com…

More about the book | More about the IFR »

Early Exploration — Early exploration nuclear reactors designed by the Manhattan Project's Metallurgical Laboratory, the direct predecessor to Argonne National Laboratory, began the development of nuclear technology… Read more about these reactors
Training Reactors —Reactors designed and operated by Argonne as a resource for training students and/or technicians… Read more about these reactors
Basic and Applied Science Research Reactors — Argonne designed, built, and operated several reactors that collectively produced a vast amount of data and analysis… Read more about these reactors
Light Water Reactor Technology Development — Light Water (conventional water, as opposed to heavy water) Reactor Technology was developed initially for the U.S. nuclear submarine program… Read more about these reactors
Heavy Water and Graphite Reactors — Argonne designed, built, and operated reactors using a wide variety of types of fuel, neutron moderator, and coolant materials to explore the technological possibilities of nuclear energy… Read more about these reactors
Fast Reactor Technology — Argonne has pioneered the development of fast reactors. The term "fast reactor" is used to describe that the neutrons emitted when a nucleus fissions are at relatively high energy (fast speeds). Unlike a thermal reactor… Read more about these reactors
Integral Fast Reactor — Developed at Argonne National Laboratory, the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) is a revolutionary nuclear reactor concept where metal alloy is used as fuel and liquid sodium as coolant and the fuel recycling is done on site… Read more about this reactor