HIFAR Community Tour

What to expect

This is a rare opportunity to visit a unique part of Australia’s science heritage. The HIFAR reactor located at Lucas Heights operated for nearly 50 years from 1958. HIFAR was shut down for the last time in 2007 when ANSTO’s new reactor, OPAL, started operation. During HIFAR’s lifetime it made significant contributions to Australian society by producing medical radioisotopes and to our scientific knowledge and understanding.

As part of Australian Heritage Week, ANSTO will conduct special tours inside the historic HIFAR reactor building. After entering the building through a special airlock entrance you will see the instruments that for almost 5 decades were used by research scientists and step inside the control room where reactor operators monitored and controlled all operations.

Afterwards you will visit OPAL the new, state-of-the-art reactor and its adjacent facilities. Here you will be able to see the advances in technology and learn of some of the benefits being delivered through nuclear science.

Visitors to HIFAR must be at least 14 years old, and will be required to climb steep metal steps to the upper level of the reactor.