A Home for Heffalump and Pooh
The U.S. government's emphasis on "atoms for war"
did not preclude interest in peaceful uses of atomic energy among nuclear
scientists. They dreamed of new worlds where nuclear reactors would produce
unbelievably cheap electrical power, a world in which nuclear science would
revolutionize industrial production, medical practice and agricultural
harvests. Fermi clearly recognized that nuclear fission would lead to
ever-expanding peaceful applications that would surpass its military uses.
Those remaining at Met Lab at that time -- including Fermi, Seaborg, Szilard
and Zinn -- began to investigate the civilian potential for nuclear fission and
transuranic elements. As with later space technology, continuing research and
what followed at Argonne would produce spin-offs of benefit to the population
at large.
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Quonset huts were quickly set up at the lab site near Lemont,
Ill. (Click the image to see a larger photo.) |
The Met Lab began moving to Site A at Palos Hills in February 1943. The
facilities were renamed the Argonne Laboratory for the woods that surrounded
and secluded them. Fermi was the first division director of Argonne Laboratory
-- until he joined the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos in 1945 -- and Zinn was
his assistant. The reactor Chicago Pile 1 was dismantled, reconstructed at Site
A and renamed Chicago Pile 2. The counting room at the one-building site
contained instruments that were given whimsical names like Heffalump and Winnie
the Pooh. According to Elmer Rylander, a scientist at the site, "A favorite
pastime during the first winter at Site A was playing a game called `peggity.'
It involved moving wooden pegs on a board with a cross formation of holes.
Fermi was its chief proponent."
On July 1, 1946, the laboratory was formally chartered as Argonne
National Laboratory to conduct "cooperative research in nucleonics." It was a
model for the U.S. national laboratory system: the first attempt to establish a
new kind of scientific research institution -- a government-funded organization
that would apply academic research traditions to problem-solving in the
national interest. Walter Zinn was its first director. A tall blond Canadian,
Zinn was determined and self-confident; he was also extremely demanding and
tended to be hardheaded. Some of these attributes would stand him in good stead
during the laboratory's formative years. Glenn Seaborg recalled the early days
during the laboratory's 25th anniversary celebration: "The Met Lab, then,
provided a strong and valuable heritage for the new Argonne National
Laboratory. The Met Lab experience engendered a sense of mission and a standard
of excellence which every great laboratory must have. Thus from its very
origins Argonne has operated from a principle that others are only now
beginning to understand -- namely, that the scientists' responsibilities extend
far beyond the technical data of the laboratory. These are worthy traditions."
The initial responsibility of Argonne National Laboratory was to study
peaceful rather than military uses of atomic power. It was to conduct basic
research in medicine and biology, physics, reactor analysis, applied
mathematics, and nuclear engineering. On December 26, 1947, the laboratory's
role was broadened considerably. At the request of the Atomic Energy
Commission, Argonne assumed the development of reactors for the nation's
nuclear energy program.
A new and much larger location at Lemont, Ill., six miles from Site A,
became the laboratory's new home. Staff began moving there in August 1948. The
following year, the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho was established
to test various reactors -- reactors with separate missions and with distinct
personalities. A portion of this site is now Argonne-West.
Next: Reactors: Modern-Day Alchemy
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