This year, 2020, both the Town of Deep River and the Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) are celebrating 75th anniversaries. Many events are planned to celebrate the town’s creation in 1945. To commemorate the September 5, 1945 start-up of the ZEEP reactor at CRL, the Society for the Preservation of Canada’s Nuclear Heritage Inc (SPCNHI) has produced a commemorative stamp.
ZEEP (Zero Energy Experimental Pile) was the first reactor in the world outside of the USA to go into operation. The Society issued an invitation to the nuclear and local communities last July to provide a suitable design for a stamp and two recent arrivals at CNL from Alberta, Herbert Mueller and Abra O’Leary, took on the challenge. Their design is based on a photo from the top of ZEEP from the mid 1950’s with two researchers making adjustments to the hanging strings of fuel in the reactor. (The researchers in the original photo were Bill Dickerson and Dave Hone.) Sourena Golesorkhi provided the physics calculations seen in the background. The stamps are recognized by Canada Post as official Canadian “permanent stamps” and can be used as such. In addition to the stamps, Morgan Brown has designed a companion commemorative ZEEP envelope.
Both the stamp, in booklets of twelve (for $25), and the envelope with the commemorative stamp (for $5), are available to the public. They will be on sale at the SPCNHI events throughout the year, or by contacting Jim Ungrin at ungrinjr(at)gmail.com. Mail orders should be addressed to SPCNHI, PO Box 441, Deep River ON, K0J 1P0.
