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A Diamond in Dogpatch: the 75Th Anniversary of the Graphite Reactor Part 2: the Postwar Years

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A Diamond in Dogpatch: the 75Th Anniversary of the Graphite Reactor Part 2: the Postwar Years A diamond in Dogpatch: The 75th anniversary of the Graphite Reactor Part 2: The Postwar Years Following World War II, the Graphite Reactor was the foundation upon which Oak Ridge National Laboratory was built, and it gave birth to many of the technologies we take for granted in the 21st century. By Sherrell R. Greene sions accomplished, however, the futures of the Met Lab and Clinton Labs were in art 1 of this article described a se- doubt. Clinton had an ace in the hole—the ries of unlikely events that resulted Graphite Reactor—a tool that had already Pin the construction of the Graphite shown itself to be a remarkably versatile Reactor in the hills of East Tennessee in a vessel for probing the New World. The location so remote that the Met Lab scien- wizards at Clinton would waste no time in tists and others in the Manhattan Project finding additional uses for it. dubbed it “Dogpatch.” Indeed, almost ev- During the later months of 1944 through erything about the Graphite Reactor story the summer of 1945, scientists at Clinton could be characterized as “unlikely”—its converged on a strategy for the lab’s post- location, the partnership between the sci- war role in the New World. Their strategy entists at the Chicago Met Lab and DuPont was built around two central themes: (1) that produced a remarkably simple but ca- exploitation of the Graphite Reactor and pable machine, the incredibly short con- the scientists’ radiochemical separations struction schedule, its trouble-free startup expertise; and (2) the development of new Graphic: ORNL and operation, and its contributions to the “piles” with different fuel cycles and ex- The original Oak Ridge National success of the Manhattan Project. Part 2 of panded capabilities for research and for Laboratory logo, 1948–1974. the story focuses on the Graphite Reactor’s the production of electricity and process unlikely post–World War II roles in the heat for civilian applications. Alamos, as well as the (newly created) birth of Oak Ridge National Laboratory The Graphite Reactor would anchor a Brookhaven Laboratory, as “national (ORNL), the advent of “Big Science,” and multifaceted program of radioisotope pro- laboratories.” Clinton Laboratories was the evolution of nuclear technology as one duction, together with basic and applied designated by the AEC as Oak Ridge of the key enablers of modern life. research in the biological, medical, and National Laboratory on March 1, 1948, health physics arenas; materials science; as operating responsibility for the lab Anchoring ORNL’s birth chemistry and radiochemistry; neutron transitioned from Monsanto (which had The end of World War II left both the science; and physics. This strategy would assumed responsibility for the operation Met Lab in Chicago and Clinton Labora- be the polestar of ORNL’s mission until of Clinton Labs in July 1945) to Carbide tories at Oak Ridge in the classic “ham- the mid-1970s. The role of the Graphite and Carbon Chemicals Company (later mer-in-search-of-a-nail” dilemma. Han- Reactor in ORNL’s birth and postwar suc- Union Carbide). It was time to leave the ford’s plutonium production mission cess was reflected in the fact that an artist’s beaches and move inland to explore the would continue. Los Alamos’s mission rendering of the Graphite Reactor served interior of the New World. would continue. With their original mis- as ORNL’s official logo until 1974, over a decade after the reactor had shut down. Beyond the bomb Sherrell R. Greene (<[email protected]>) It is almost certainly the case that ORNL The scope of the Graphite Reactor’s is President of Advanced Technology Insights LLC would not exist today as one of the world’s contributions to the modern age extends (ATI). Prior to founding ATI in 2012, he worked for premier scientific research laboratories far beyond its direct roles in the Manhat- 33 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where, had it not been for the Graphite Reactor. tan Project. The reactor’s contributions during his last seven years, he served as Director President Harry Truman signed the directly or indirectly touch many aspects of Nuclear Technology Programs and Director of Atomic Energy Act on August 1, 1946, of life in the 21st century. The range of Research Reactors Development. This article is and the newly established Atomic Ener- activities undertaken there from 1946 adapted from his forthcoming book on the history gy Commission (AEC) assumed control to 1963 is breathtaking, even by modern of the Oak Ridge Graphite Reactor, the birth of of the Manhattan Project facilities and standards. If something could be probed “Big Science,” and the making of the Atomic Age. programs on January 1, 1947. One of the or produced with neutrons and radiation, Part 1: The War Years was published in the AEC’s first acts was to dedicate the lab- it was. A few of the reactor’s many contri- November issue of Nuclear News. oratories in Chicago, Clinton, and Los butions and “firsts” are briefly noted here. 28 • Nuclear News • December 2018 www.ans.org/nn A diamond in Dogpatch: The 75th anniversary of the Graphite Reactor sought to distinguish between the effects of fast neutrons, slow neutrons, and gam- ma radiation. It was from this work that the original “LD 50” guidelines for lethal radiation dose in humans were developed. The Graphite Reactor’s contributions to reactor technology include the first use of two-group neutron transport (diffusion theory) to design a reactor lattice; the first operation of a nuclear reactor at tempera- tures sufficiently high to “see” the reactiv- ity temperature feedback effect; the first fabrication and use of sealed nuclear fuel elements; the first natural uranium–water lattice experiments (which provided the basis for early light-water reactor designs); the first demonstration of water tank shields (which provided the motivation for the ubiquitous pool-type research reactors constructed around the world in the 1950s Photo: DOE/Ed Wescott and 1960s and information used in the de- The first delivery of the medical radioisotope carbon-14 to the Barnard Free Skin and sign of early naval reactor shields); the first Cancer Hospital in St. Louis, Mo., on August 2, 1946. use of experimental reactivity oscillator devices; and the discovery of the low-cap- Alvin Weinberg famously stated, “If at togenetic/chromosomal mutation) effects ture cross section of zirconium (which some time a heavenly angel should ask of slow neutrons and from which mod- became the standard fuel cladding for the what the laboratory in the hills of East ern-day boron neutron capture therapy world’s commercial nuclear power fleet). Tennessee did to enlarge man’s life and was developed. If you or someone you Fuels for homogeneous and molten-salt make it better, I daresay the production know has undergone a nuclear medicine reactors were first tested in the Graphite of radioisotopes for scientific research procedure, it’s quite likely that the radio- Reactor. The use of pneumatic tubes, or and medical treatment will surely rate as isotopes and technologies employed trace “rabbits” (a now-common design feature a candidate for first place.” their history to the Graphite Reactor. of research reactors worldwide), for the In June 1946, ORNL (still Clinton Labs Plans for the use of the Graphite Reac- insertion and retrieval of material sam- at the time) published a notice in Science tor to explore the effects of radioactivity ples while the reactor was operating was magazine announcing that some 20 fission on organisms were in place at the Clinton perfected at the Graphite Reactor. product isotopes and 60 nonfission prod- Pile by April 1943. Those plans included One would be remiss to overlook the uct isotopes would be available to research- both the impact of radiation from external world’s first production of electricity ers and the medical community. The first sources, from inhaled and ingested radio- from nuclear energy, which occurred at commercial shipment of radioisotopes— active species, and studies of how radio- the Graphite Reactor in September 1948, 1 millicurie of carbon-14 to the Barnard active species are metabolized in mam- when researchers connected a tabletop Free Skin and Cancer Hospital in St. Lou- mals (specifically mice and rabbits). Many Jensen #50 steam engine/generator to a is, Mo.—occurred on August 2, 1946. of the studies involved the irradiation of simple steam generator driven by 10 fuel In its first year of production, the mice in the “animal tunnels” at the top slugs in the pile. The electricity powered Graphite Reactor produced material for of the reactor (NN, Nov. 2018, p. 40) and a small flashlight bulb. Although appar- over a thousand shipments of radioiso- topes. Demand was particularly high for carbon-14, iodine-131, and phospho- rus-32, which would become a work- horse radioisotope for mapping metabolic pathways and labeling DNA. By the end of 1951, the lab had made nearly 30,000 shipments of radioisotopes. By the time the Graphite Reactor shut down in 1963, over 27 kg of technetium (Tc-99m is the most frequently used radionuclide in nu- clear medicine) had been shipped from the lab. Over the course of its lifetime, the Graphite Reactor and its associated radio- chemical processing facilities served as an “atomic apothecary,” producing over 200 different radioisotopes (many synthesized for the first time at Oak Ridge) for medical treatments, industrial applications, and scientific research. It was also in the Graphite Reactor that the experiments were done that demon- strated the major role boron content Photo: DOE/Ed Wescott played in determining the biological (cy- The first electricity is generated from nuclear power, September 1948.
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