X-10 Graphite Reactor
Encyclopedia
The X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
, formerly known as the Clinton Pile and X-10 Pile, was the world's second artificial nuclear reactor
(after Enrico Fermi
's Chicago Pile
) and was the first reactor designed and built for continuous operation.
When President Roosevelt
in December 1942 authorized the Manhattan Project
, the Oak Ridge site in eastern Tennessee
had already been obtained for the Clinton Engineer Works
and plans had been laid for establishing an air-cooled experimental pile, a pilot
chemical separation plant, and support facilities. The X-10 Graphite Reactor, designed and built in ten months, went into operation on November 4, 1943. The reactor used neutrons emitted in the fission
of uranium-235
to convert uranium-238
into a new element, plutonium-239
.
The reactor consists of a huge block of graphite
, measuring 24 feet (7.3 m) on each side, surrounded by several feet of high-density concrete as a radiation
shield. The block is pierced by 1,248 horizontal diamond-shaped channels in which rows of cylindrical uranium
slugs formed long rods. Cooling air circulated through the channels on all sides of the slugs. After a period of operation, operators pushed fresh slugs into the channels from the face of the pile and the irradiated slugs would fall from the back wall through a chute into an underwater bucket. Following weeks of underwater storage to allow for decay in radioactivity
, the slugs were delivered to the chemical separation building.
The X-10 Graphite Reactor supplied the Los Alamos
laboratory with the first significant amounts of plutonium
. Fission studies of these samples from the reactor heavily influenced bomb design. The X-10 chemical separation plant also proved the bismuth phosphate process
that was used in the full-scale separation facilities at Hanford. Finally, the reactor and chemical separation plant provided invaluable experience for engineers, technicians, reactor operators, and safety officials who then moved on to the Hanford site
.
After the war ended, the graphite reactor became the first facility in the world to produce radioactive isotope
s for peacetime use. On August 2, 1946, ORNL director Eugene Wigner presented a small container of carbon-14
to the director of the Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital, for medical use at the hospital in St. Louis
. Subsequent shipments of radioisotopes, primarily iodine-131
, phosphorus-32
, and carbon-14, were intended for scientific, medical, industrial and agricultural uses.
The Graphite Reactor at X-10 was shut down in 1963, after twenty years of use. It was designated a National Historic Landmark
in 1966. In 1969 the American Society for Metals listed it as a landmark for its contributions to the advancement of materials science
and technology. In 2008 it was designated as a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society
. The control room and reactor face are accessible to the public during scheduled tours offered through the American Museum of Science and Energy
.
, England
, which was constructed for the British Ministry of Supply
and later operated by the Atomic Weapons Establishment
. One of the two reactors at Windscale caught fire
in 1957.
One reactor of similar design as the X-10 reactor is still in operation today, the Belgian BR-1 reactor in Mol, Belgium
. It is used for scientific purposes, such as neutron activation analysis
, neutron physics experiments and calibration of nuclear measurement devices.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a multiprogram science and technology national laboratory managed for the United States Department of Energy by UT-Battelle. ORNL is the DOE's largest science and energy laboratory. ORNL is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near Knoxville...
in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 27,387 at the 2000 census...
, formerly known as the Clinton Pile and X-10 Pile, was the world's second artificial nuclear reactor
Nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...
(after Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics...
's Chicago Pile
Chicago Pile-1
Chicago Pile-1 was the world's first man-made nuclear reactor. CP-1 was built on a rackets court, under the abandoned west stands of the original Alonzo Stagg Field stadium, at the University of Chicago. The first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated in CP-1 on December 2, 1942...
) and was the first reactor designed and built for continuous operation.
When President Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
in December 1942 authorized the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
, the Oak Ridge site in eastern Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
had already been obtained for the Clinton Engineer Works
Clinton Engineer Works
The Clinton Engineer Works was the Army name for the Manhattan Project production facility in World War II for enriched uranium used in the Little Boy atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, and would have produced enough enriched uranium for a second Little Boy gun-type bomb by December 1945...
and plans had been laid for establishing an air-cooled experimental pile, a pilot
Pilot plant
A pilot plant is a small chemical processing system which is operated to generate information about the behavior of the system for use in design of larger facilities....
chemical separation plant, and support facilities. The X-10 Graphite Reactor, designed and built in ten months, went into operation on November 4, 1943. The reactor used neutrons emitted in the fission
Nuclear fission
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts , often producing free neutrons and photons , and releasing a tremendous amount of energy...
of uranium-235
Uranium-235
- References :* .* DOE Fundamentals handbook: Nuclear Physics and Reactor theory , .* A piece of U-235 the size of a grain of rice can produce energy equal to that contained in three tons of coal or fourteen barrels of oil. -External links:* * * one of the earliest articles on U-235 for the...
to convert uranium-238
Uranium-238
Uranium-238 is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature. It is not fissile, but is a fertile material: it can capture a slow neutron and after two beta decays become fissile plutonium-239...
into a new element, plutonium-239
Plutonium-239
Plutonium-239 is an isotope of plutonium. Plutonium-239 is the primary fissile isotope used for the production of nuclear weapons, although uranium-235 has also been used and is currently the secondary isotope. Plutonium-239 is also one of the three main isotopes demonstrated usable as fuel in...
.
The reactor consists of a huge block of graphite
Graphite
The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...
, measuring 24 feet (7.3 m) on each side, surrounded by several feet of high-density concrete as a radiation
Ionizing radiation
Ionizing radiation is radiation composed of particles that individually have sufficient energy to remove an electron from an atom or molecule. This ionization produces free radicals, which are atoms or molecules containing unpaired electrons...
shield. The block is pierced by 1,248 horizontal diamond-shaped channels in which rows of cylindrical uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
slugs formed long rods. Cooling air circulated through the channels on all sides of the slugs. After a period of operation, operators pushed fresh slugs into the channels from the face of the pile and the irradiated slugs would fall from the back wall through a chute into an underwater bucket. Following weeks of underwater storage to allow for decay in radioactivity
Radioactive decay
Radioactive decay is the process by which an atomic nucleus of an unstable atom loses energy by emitting ionizing particles . The emission is spontaneous, in that the atom decays without any physical interaction with another particle from outside the atom...
, the slugs were delivered to the chemical separation building.
The X-10 Graphite Reactor supplied the Los Alamos
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
laboratory with the first significant amounts of plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
. Fission studies of these samples from the reactor heavily influenced bomb design. The X-10 chemical separation plant also proved the bismuth phosphate process
Bismuth phosphate process
Bismuth-phosphate process was a process used to extract plutonium from used nuclear fuel taken from nuclear reactors. This process was used to produce all the plutonium of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. In 1952 this process was replaced by the Redox and PUREX processes.-References:*...
that was used in the full-scale separation facilities at Hanford. Finally, the reactor and chemical separation plant provided invaluable experience for engineers, technicians, reactor operators, and safety officials who then moved on to the Hanford site
Hanford Site
The Hanford Site is a mostly decommissioned nuclear production complex on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, operated by the United States federal government. The site has been known by many names, including Hanford Works, Hanford Engineer Works or HEW, Hanford Nuclear Reservation...
.
After the war ended, the graphite reactor became the first facility in the world to produce radioactive isotope
Isotope
Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons. Atoms of a particular element by definition must contain the same number of protons but may have a distinct number of neutrons which differs from atom to atom, without changing the designation...
s for peacetime use. On August 2, 1946, ORNL director Eugene Wigner presented a small container of carbon-14
Carbon-14
Carbon-14, 14C, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with a nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and colleagues , to date archaeological, geological, and hydrogeological...
to the director of the Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital, for medical use at the hospital in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. Subsequent shipments of radioisotopes, primarily iodine-131
Iodine-131
Iodine-131 , also called radioiodine , is an important radioisotope of iodine. It has a radioactive decay half-life of about eight days. Its uses are mostly medical and pharmaceutical...
, phosphorus-32
Phosphorus-32
Phosphorus-32 is a radioactive isotope of phosphorus. The nucleus of phosphorus-32 contains 15 protons and 17 neutrons, one more neutron than the most common isotope of phosphorus, phosphorus-31...
, and carbon-14, were intended for scientific, medical, industrial and agricultural uses.
The Graphite Reactor at X-10 was shut down in 1963, after twenty years of use. It was designated a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1966. In 1969 the American Society for Metals listed it as a landmark for its contributions to the advancement of materials science
Materials science
Materials science is an interdisciplinary field applying the properties of matter to various areas of science and engineering. This scientific field investigates the relationship between the structure of materials at atomic or molecular scales and their macroscopic properties. It incorporates...
and technology. In 2008 it was designated as a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...
. The control room and reactor face are accessible to the public during scheduled tours offered through the American Museum of Science and Energy
American Museum of Science and Energy
The American Museum of Science and Energy is a science museum in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, designed to teach both children and adults about energy, especially nuclear power, and to document the role Oak Ridge played in the Manhattan Project. The museum opened as the American Museum of Atomic Energy in...
.
Similar reactors
The X-10 reactor was similar in design to the Windscale reactor in CumbriaCumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, which was constructed for the British Ministry of Supply
Ministry of Supply
The Ministry of Supply was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. There was, however, a separate ministry responsible for aircraft production and the Admiralty retained...
and later operated by the Atomic Weapons Establishment
Atomic Weapons Establishment
The Atomic Weapons Establishment is responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent. AWE plc is responsible for the day-to-day operations of AWE...
. One of the two reactors at Windscale caught fire
Windscale fire
The Windscale fire of 10 October 1957 was the worst nuclear accident in Great Britain's history, ranked in severity at level 5 on the 7-point International Nuclear Event Scale. The two piles had been hurriedly built as part of the British atomic bomb project. Windscale Pile No. 1 was operational in...
in 1957.
One reactor of similar design as the X-10 reactor is still in operation today, the Belgian BR-1 reactor in Mol, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. It is used for scientific purposes, such as neutron activation analysis
Neutron activation analysis
In chemistry, neutron activation analysis is a nuclear process used for determining the concentrations of elements in a vast amount of materials. NAA allows discrete sampling of elements as it disregards the chemical form of a sample, and focuses solely on its nucleus. The method is based on...
, neutron physics experiments and calibration of nuclear measurement devices.
External links
- The Manhattan Project: Making the Atomic Bomb
- Site X A map of Manhattan Project era Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
- ORNL webpage about the Graphite Reactor
- National Historic Landmark nomination file on the X-10 Graphite Reactor
- A Visit to X-10 Photos of a Public Tour