1940-49 || 1950-59 || 1960-69 || 1970-79 || 1980-89 || 1990-99 || 2000-present

Argonne Highlights: 1960-1969

1960

February 8 -- Ground is broken for the Biological and Medical Research Division's Janus reactor, the world's first reactor designed and built for biological research.

April 1 -- Argonne-East's Branch Post Office opens in Building 90, and the site acquires a new mailing address: 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, Ill.

May 9 -- Argonne is featured in a two-hour documentary, "Inside Argonne," on the ABC Television Network.

June 25 -- Argonne's Idaho site holds its first open house June 25-26. About 2,600 people tour the site.

1961

September 30 -- Experimental Breeder Reactor Two (EBR-II) achieves its first criticality. Called "dry criticality," it refers to low power operation with no sodium coolant present.

October 11 -- Norman Hilberry retires as Argonne Director.

November 1 -- Albert V. Crewe, director of the Particle Accelerator Division, becomes the third Argonne Director. As the new director of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's leading nuclear reactor laboratory, he was still a citizen of the United Kingdom. He soon became a U.S. citizen, in his words, "in record time."

1962

January 11 -- The JUGGERNAUT reactor achieves first criticality.

January 31 -- Chicago Pile 5 registers its 100 millionth kilowatt-hour of service.

February 9 -- The Boiling Reactor Experiment No. 5 (BORAX V) achieves first criticality.

March 15 -- Arthur Holly Compton, the first Met Lab director, dies.

May 15 -- Ground is broken for High Energy Physics Building (362).

July 24 -- Ground is broken for Argonne's "recreation facility" in Argonne Park, Building 951.

September 5 -- Chicago's WTTW-TV and 65 other "educational" stations around the country begin broadcasting "Challenge," a 13-part weekly TV show produced by National Educational Television Center and focused on Argonne research.

September 7 -- The Journal of the American Chemical Society receives a paper from Argonne and British scientists revealing the discovery of the hydrated electron.

October 2 -- Argonne announces the creation of xenon tetrafluoride, the first simple compound of xenon, one of the "inert" gases.

October 16 -- Ground is broken for the building 620 and 621 additions to the Lodging Facility.

November l5 -- Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) finishes its original experiment program and turns to plutonium-related research and development.

November 27 -- EBR-I becomes the world's first reactor to produce electricity with a plutonium core.

1963

March 13 -- Ground is broken for Building 221, the "Mathematics and Computer Facility Building."

March 14 -- "Argonne Night in Chicago" is held at the Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place. Lab Director Albert Crewe delivers the first state-of-the-laboratory address to Argonne employees, and the 60-minute film "The Many Faces of Argonne" premiers.

April 1 -- Ground is broken for Argonne-East's Building 213 cafeteria.

July 23 -- The Zero Power Reactor VI ( ZPR-6) goes into operation with its initial core loadings.

July 27 -- The first and last Miss Argonne Club is announced at the Argonne Picnic: "Argonne's most popular girl," by employee vote.

July 30 -- Construction is completed for the Zero Gradient Synchrotron, a 12.5 Gev proton accelerator built at Argonne-East for high energy physics.

August 1 -- All ZGS components operate for the first time as a complete system.

September 18 -- The ZGS operates for the first time at full energy, accelerating a proton beam to 12.7 GeV, higher than its design energy of 12.5 GeV.

October l0 -- BORAX V becomes the first reactor to use nuclear energy to produce super-heated steam.

November 11 -- EBR-II achieves "wet criticality" -- achieving a sustained nuclear chair reaction while cooled by liquid sodium.

December 4 -- The ZGS is dedicated. Speakers include two Nobel Prize winners: AEC Chairman Glenn Seaborg and University of Chicago President George Beadle.

December 12 -- Maria Goeppert Mayer receives the Nobel Prize in physics.

December 30 -- EBR-I is officially shut down.

1964

February 11 -- Zero Power Reactor IX (ZPR-9) begins operation as part of a research and development program in nuclear rocketry.

April 14 -- The first particle track photo is obtained at the ZGS 30-inch bubble chamber.

May 15 -- Argonne is first to use a superconducting magnet in a full-scale high-energy-physics experiment.

July 6 -- The Building 213 cafeteria opens for business.

August 3 -- The Janus Reactor goes critical, the world's first reactor designed and built exclusively for biological research.

August 14 -- EBR-II produces 8,000 kilowatts of electricity, its first electricity and the first significant nuclear power for use at National Reactor Testing Station.

September 18 -- Chicago's WTTW-TV and other National Educational Television stations begin a second season of "Challenge," this one a 9-part series focused on Argonne research.

November 17 -- The Atomic Energy Commission awards the contract to begin construction of the Zero Power Plutonium Reactor in Idaho for studies of core designs for plutonium-fueled reactors.

December 2 -- The site of Chicago Pile I is designated a Registered National Historic Landmark.

1965

September 13 -- Experimental Breeder Reactor II and its associated Fuel Cycle Facility are dedicated at Argonne's Idaho Division.

December 30 -- Chicago Pile 5 (CP-5) registers its 200 millionth kilowatt-hour of service.

1966

February 24 -- King Simon II and Queen Margarita, exiled monarchs of Bulgaria, tour Argonne's Illinois site.

February 25 -- AScience magazine article describes Argonne's development of computer software to draw electronic density maps (graphic representations of electron structure) of two-atom molecules.

May 25 -- Argonne announces the first direct measurements of the properties of astatine, an element so scarce it had never been seen with the human eye.

June 20 -- The 40-inch heavy liquid bubble chamber begins operation at the ZGS.

August 26 -- President Lyndon Baines Johnson visits EBR-I for ceremonies designating it a Registered National Historic Landmark.

October l2 -- Experimental Boiling Water Reactor provides plutonium-based electricity for Argonne-East.

October 21 -- Ground is broken for Building 223, the Solid State Science Building.

November 1 -- A new contract is signed under which Argonne will be operated under a tripartite contract among the University of Chicago, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Argonne Universities Association, a consortium of Midwest research universities.

November 21 -- APhysical Review Letters article by scientists from Argonne and the universities of Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota reports ZGS research that shows first evidence that protons have layered structures.

November 30 -- The JUGGERNAUT reactor records its 2 millionth kilowatt hour of service.

December 6 -- Albert Crewe announces his plans to resign as Argonne Director.

1967

February 27 -- The report of the Argonne "Study Group on Environmental Pollution" is completed, including a proposal for a micro-meteorological modeling facility.

June 12 -- Ground is broken for the Argonne Advanced Research Reactor, designed to produce neutron fluxes 80 times greater than those from CP-5.

June 12 -- Ground is broken for the ZGS 12-foot bubble chamber. It will have 25 times greater volume than any existing bubble chamber.

June 30 -- Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman and Nobel laureate Glenn Seaborg dedicates Argonne's IBM System/360 Computer.

July 1 -- Experimental Boiling Water Reactor is officially shut down, though some on-going reactor physics experiments are not completed until August.

August 17 -- A letter from University of Chicago President George Beadle announces that Robert B. Duffield will become Argonne Director, effective November 1, 1967.

September 11 -- An instrument developed by Argonne, the University of Chicago and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and carried to the moon by Surveyor V, tests the composition of the moon's surface with alpha particles.

September 27 -- Ground is broken for Building 33, the first Argonne Credit Union Building.

November 1 -- Robert B. Duffield becomes the fourth Argonne director.

December 2 -- Mrs. Enrico Fermi unveils "Nuclear Energy," a sculpture by Henry Moore, at the site of CP-1 during ceremonies celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Atomic Age.

1968

January 26 -- The AEC informs Argonne and the Argonne Universities Association of an amendment to the Atomic Energy Act providing "that the AEC laboratories be used ... in the field of protection of public health and safety, which includes environmental problems."

January 29 -- Argonne kicks off "Project Hire" to accelerate the hiring of minority employees and appoints its first full-time employee dedicated to an "Affirmative Program."

April 29 -- The Argonne Credit Union holds a grand opening of its new headquarters in Building 33.

May 22 -- Argonne chemists fill in a missing link in the chemistry of halogen compounds by announcing the creation of the first compound in which bromine has a valence state of 7.

May 31 -- Argonne's 4-MeV Van De Graaff Accelerator is dismantled and transported to the University of Notre Dame for new users.

July 1 -- The Associated Midwest Universities merges with the Argonne Universities Association.

September 9 -- Argonne announces creation of the first crystalline form of permanganic acid.

October 8 -- Argonne's Center for Educational Affairs is established, the forerunner of today's Division of Educational Programs.

December 17 -- The ZGS 12-foot bubble chamber is energized. It is the world's largest bubble chamber.

1969

January 5 -- CP-5 is shut down for modification and renovation.

April 18 -- The Zero Power Plutonium Reactor (later renamed the Zero Power Physics Reactor) goes critical for the first time and is put into operation at Argonne-West.

April 25 -- The 12-foot bubble chamber is installed inside a 107-ton superconducting magnet -- the world's largest superconducting magnet.

May 5 -- Building 223, the Solid State Science Building, is dedicated.

September 12 -- Argonne chemists report the world's first solution of positively charged ions of radon, normally an inert gas.

September 22 -- Argonne receives moon rock samples to analyze from the Apollo 11 Mission.

October 13 -- The ZGS 12-foot bubble chamber operates successfully for the first time.

November 20 -- The Zero Power Plutonium Reactor is dedicated at the National Reactor Testing Station.

December 1 -- Argonne Director Robert Duffield establishes of the Center for Environmental Studies with Leonard Link as director.

1940-49 || 1950-59 || 1960-69 || 1970-79 || 1980-89 || 1990-99 || 2000-present