September 9, 1966
HFIR at full power
ORNL’s longest-standing lab director Alvin M. Weinberg announced that HFIR had reached full power in his opening speech at the ceremony marking the Graphite Reactor becoming a Registered National Landmark.
“I am pleased to announce that the modern successor to the Graphite Reactor, the High Flux Isotope Reactor, which is to produce the first gram quantities of californium, has achieved full power. [On] Friday, September 9, at 7:46 p.m., HFIR for the first time reached its full design power. ... That a new, much higher-powered reactor comes into being, phoenix-like, even as we dedicate an older reactor to history, augurs well for the future."
HFIR attained its design power of 100 MW in September 1966—a little over 5 years from the beginning of its construction—achieving a record of operation time unsurpassed by any other reactor in the United States over the following two decades. By December 1973, it had completed its 100th fuel cycle, each running approximately 23 days.
(Photo Credit: ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy)
Source: The ORNL News
