Representatives from the Sir William Tyree Foundation and a contingent of students who received engineering scholarships visited ANSTO last week.
The visit gave ANSTO the opportunity to officially thank the Foundation for its support in acquiring the HIFAR reactor control room as an educational resource in the Discovery Centre.
CEO Shaun Jenkinson, Group Executive Jasmine Raey and other ANSTO staff welcome Robyn Fennell, Director and Jane Miller, Executive Officer at the Discovery Centre where a plaque has been installed to acknowledge the support.
Shaun described the significance of the panels at the brief unveiling ceremony,
“As time passes, it becomes increasingly important that we preserve not only our stories, but also the physical artefacts that tell those stories. By relocating these historic control room panels into the ANSTO Discovery Centre, we are ensuring that future generations can connect directly with the technology and achievements that helped shape modern Australia.” said Shaun.
HIFAR, the High Flux Australian Reactor, operated from 1958 to 2007, when it was replaced by the advanced Open Pool Light Water Reactor (OPAL), now in its 20th year. HIFAR was used to produce nuclear medicine and support scientific research through a suite of neutron instruments.
The reactor, with its distinct white domed containment vessel, is currently being decommissioned.
The control panel looks very different to the fully automated control panels of OPAL, where operators supervise the computerized processes that run the reactor.
An iPad- based virtual tour of HIFAR was also demonstrated at the Tyree event so that all Discovery Centre visitors now have the opportunity to digitally access the key areas of old reactor HiFAR before decommissioning started. Capturing this high-resolution footage was only made possible by the Tyree’s support and this footage has been filmed so that it can be re-purposed for other education and outreach applications in the future.
The guests and students joined with the University of New South Wales Nuclear Society for a site tour before all attended a careers panel with Nuclear Analysis Section Leader Nico Ranson, Nuclear Analysis Section Leader (Thermohydraulics) Mark Ho, OPAL Systems Engineer Sherry Chen and ANSTO Graduate Olivia Beck.
