Achievements

CP-5 (Chicago Pile 5 Reactor)

The Argonne's Chicago Pile 5 (CP-5) reactor was a research workhorse, providing neutrons for experiments on the structure and behavior of materials. It started operation in 1954 and was used until 1979. Technicians for Illinois’ first commercial power plants were trained at CP-5.

CP-5 was used for a good deal of materials research starting in the 1970s, its major mission was to study the physics of atomic nuclei. During its 25-year career, CP-5 attracted hundreds of scientists from industry, universities and government laboratories all over the world. It opened new horizons in nuclear physics and materials research. It taught future scientists, trained reactor operators, and served as a model for many other research reactors in the United States and abroad. CP-5 was the fifth and last member of the distinguished family of "Chicago Pile" reactors, whose legacy ranges from the earliest efforts to develop nuclear reactors to current environmental research aimed at learning how to retire them safely.

When Chicago Pile 5 retired from active service as a materials research reactor in 1979, it marked the end of operations for the Chicago Pile reactors. The decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of the CP-5 Research Reactor Facility was initiated in 1991 and completed in 2000.

For more information on CP-5:
Decommissioning of CP-5
CP-5 Flickr Gallery (by Argonne National Laboratory) or
“Chicago Pile” Flickr Gallery (by Argonne National Laboratory) for available photos of all the "Chicago Pile" reactors

ZPR-2

In 1953, ZPR-2 experiments at Argonne demonstrated the design feasibility of the Savannah River Production reactor in South Carolina, constructed in 1954.

Hanford Basic Design

Fuel-processing studies for the production reactors at Hanford were carried out in Argonne Buildings 205 and 310 in the early 1950s.

ZPR-7: Thorium-Uranium D₂O Reactor (THUD)

The ZPR-7 reactor was used to supply physics design information required in connection with several phases of Argonne's boiling reactor program. The physics of Uranium-thorium fuels were explored. The facility helped to perform critical and mockup experiments, necessary to achieve higher precision for the determination of reactor power distribution patterns, effect of non-uniform void distributions, kinetic behavior, control rod effectivness, importance of streaming and localized substitution effects.

CP-6 (Chicago Pile 6 Reactor)

CP-6 was designed at Argonne. Five of the reactors based on the CP-6 design were built at the Savannah River Plant for production of materials for military use. Intended as a backup design for the Hanford Production Reactors, these operated for decades.