Published on the 9th April 2014 by ANSTO Staff
Australian Heritage Week is an annual celebration of the buildings, landscapes and stories of our local communities.
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| Robert Menzies turning on the HIFAR Reactor in 1958. |
To celebrate National Heritage Week, ANSTO invites you to look back to the 1950s when Australia’s very first nuclear reactor HIFAR (High Flux Australian Reactor) was built to serve the Australian community.
Opening on Australia day in 1958 by then Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, HIFAR was one of six nuclear reactors built to make radiopharmaceuticals and test materials for the development of nuclear energy in Australia.
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| HIFAR (High Flux Australian Reactor) |
In 1972 the Government decided not to proceed down the nuclear energy route. This meant that HIFAR was adapted not only for neutron beam research into industrial materials but for silicon irradiation and for the semiconductor industry as well.
During its lifetime HIFAR produced billions of neutrons through the process of fission, which is the splitting of a large atom uranium, into two smaller ones; and one or more neutrons.
Some of the key benefits of HIFAR included:
- Manufacturing millions of patient doses of nuclear medicine
- Neutron Activation Analysis and Delayed Neutron Analysis for the mining industry and forensic purposes
- The production of gamma ray sources for sterilisation purposes, cancer therapy and industry
- Neutron diffraction experiments for the study of matter
HIFAR operated safely for almost 50 years. The 30th of January 2007 was a historic day for ANSTO and all of Australia, as our first nuclear reactor HIFAR was officially shut down.