A copy of the Pembroke Observer newspaper from November 04, 1957, announcing the fact that, on the day before publication, the NRU reactor at Chalk River achieved first criticality.  The announcement shared from page coverage with the release of information by Russia on the status of their dog, Laika, who had successfully survived one month in space.  The large-format (16” by 24”) paper featured three photographs of Chalk River scientists involved in the start-up as well as a cutaway view of NRU on the front page and two additional photographs on page 3.  An additional by-line on the front page concerned an armed German immigrant, who had been apprehended in Toronto with a vail of high concentration radium which he had been using to paint numbers on wrist-watch dials.  Both his clothing and his residence were found to be highly contaminated.

Typical 1960s-era circuit board designed and manufactured at Chalk River for use in nuclear physics research experiments.  The boards, typically 19 cm in length, with a handle at the rear, would plug into a header that supplied the data signals as well as the operating power for the board.  These units predated the NIM (Nuclear Module Instrumentation) modules which became standard in the early 1970s.  This board was part of the electronics instrumentation used by Warwick Knowles at Chalk River.

Two standard, 19-inch (48 cm) wide, 1970s vintage,  electronics racks used at Chalk River by Warwick Knowles for his gamma ray measurements.  These racks display the typical Nixie counting tubes used in that era to display counts. The lower rack consists mainly of three Nixie tubes displaying “Units, Tens and Hundreds” along with multiple switches to adjust and set counting periods.

The rack of electronics behind the panel holds three E.P. Clare rotary switches that drove the counting tubes.  The upper rack housed the circuit boards that prepared the signals for driving printers or paper-tape punch units.  The boards were the forerunners of Nuclear Instrumentation Module (NIM) bins that became industry standard around 1970.  These boards were designed and manufactured at Chalk River.

A vintage, Model 204, Du Mont oscillograph used for examining electrical pulses, particularly those from radiation detectors. The artifact, which measures 23 cm in width by 36 cm tall by 48 cm deep, was one of the first commercially available oscilloscopes.  The screen measures 12.7 cm (nominal 5 inch) in diameter.  Records on the internet indicate that versions of this model were on the market as early as 1940.  This artifact was located stored by the donor alongside a number of newer (surplus) oscilloscopes which bore identification tying them to the Chalk River laboratory.  Although no identification tag could be located on this unit, it is believed to have been used either at the Montreal Lab and/or during the very early days of the Chalk River site and that it was replaced by newer units before the NRX-XXX inventory scheme was instituted at the site.

An early, analogue, multimeter which replaced the individual volt/ampere/ohm meters used in the mid to late 1940s.  This Sanwa, Model 300-G, meter bears a date on the meter of 1956.  It measures 9 cm in width by 14 in height by 6 in depth.  It has not been confirmed to have been used at Chalk River.

A model of one of the earliest spectrometers (neutron scattering?) used on NRX.  It is believed it would have been mounted against the NRX thermal column but despite significant effort, no details have been uncovered as to what experiments it was used for nor who its researchers/designers might have been.  A beam of neutrons would have entered the spectrometer at the right hitting a sample which it appears could be rotated at various angles, or even spun.  This would indicate it was used for neutron scattering as opposed to nuclear physics measurements. There has been no confirmation that it was actually built.  The model stands about 30 cm tall. 

A small sample of powdered (less than 75 microns diameter) uranium ore from the Beaverlodge Mine in Saskatchewan.  The sample, usually used to confirm assays, is certified to have a concentration of 0.426% +/- 0.002 by CANMET.  (CANMET Report 82-6E).  The sample is in a sealed, 9 cm tall bottle, contained within an 11 cm tall metal container.  It was originally issued by CANMET as a check source for a student researcher.

Hardy Phillipi was the winner of employee contests within AECL both to name a new employee award and to design the logo for it.   His suggested name, in 1984,  of  “Discovery Award” and his design of the logo led to his being a winner of the award in 1985.  The framed certificate measures 30 cm by 36 cm. The gift accompanying the award, a tea tray with the logo etched into the glass, measures 29 cm by 45 cm.

 A 20 cm by 25 cm, black and white photograph of the AECL Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee as of December 1985.  The photograph is matted and mounted in a frame with outside dimensions of 35 cm by 42 cm.  The names of the Committee members are listed below the photograph.

A 30 cm wide wooden plaque on which cross-section segments of both NRU and NRX uranium metal fuel elements are mounted.  Various geometries were tested over the years to optimize cooling and fuel lifetime.

A 61 cm by 79 cm portrait of Mrs. May Keys painted by Canadian artist and author, Maida Parlow French.  The artist’s signature on the lower left of the painting states that the portrait was done in Deep River in 1964.  The connection between the artist, who in 1964 would have been 73 years of age, and Keys family is unknown.

A 61 cm by 79 cm portrait of Dr. David A. Keys painted by Canadian artist and author, Maida Parlow French.  The artist’s signature on the lower left of the painting states that the portrait was done in Deep River in 1964.  The connection between the artist, who in 1964 would have been 73 years of age, and Dr. Keys is unknown.

A sportswear shirt bearing the embroidered crest and nameplate of the Canadian Nuclear Security Commission (CNSC). This organization, earlier known as the Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) supervises and licences the Canadian nuclear program.

A CNSC-themed baseball cap.  The Canadian Nuclear Security Commission supervises the Canadian nuclear program.  It was formerly known as the Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB).

A 44 cm by 35 cm, silver-plated, tray given to A.H. Dombra to commemorate his 25 years of service with AECL.  Allan worked largely on heavy water projects over his time at Chalk River.  The engraved message below the “Flying -A“ AECL symbol reads ” A.E.C.L., 25 years, A.H. Dombra, 1989”.

A 54 cm by 65 cm, matted and framed colour photograph showing the blue Cerenkov radiation seen when irradiated fuel rods are kept in water for cooling.  The reverse of the photograph has an AECL identification number of 3888-2.  These photographs were often displayed in department Branch Offices.

A standard T-shirt featuring the AECL Flying-A log and the words “Deep River, Welcome to the Half-Life”.  This was one example of many such items of attire, each bearing different messages, that the large contingent of summer students at the Chalk River laboratories designed and had printed over the years.

A 14.5 cm by 20 cm by 1.5 cm thick, marble, memento with an engraved plaque presented to W. Evans of AECL to commemorate his contributions to the Embalse Nuclear Power Project in Argentina.  The plaque is held in a 20 cm by 27 cm by 7 cm, lined, blue, presentation case. The nuclear generating unit, installed at Rio Tercero, Cordoba in Argentina, was a CANDU 6 purchased from AECL.  Construction started in 1976 and the station went into commercial operation in 1984.  The plaque, signed by James Donnelly, President and CEO of AECL, was presented to Evans on the occasion of the station inauguration on 3 May 1993.

A 10 cm long section of 10.3 cm inner diameter CANDU pressure tube mounted on a 16 cm by 18 cm wooden base. This artifact was made as a retirement present for Windsor Evans.  In addition to the “Flying-A” logo, the engraved inscription reads “Windsor Evans, Head, Metallurgical Engineering Branch, 1967-1988”.  The pressure-tube segment is autographed by many of Windsor’s work colleagues at Chalk River.

A standard "baseball" cap with the logo of CanAlaska Uranium Limited, a uranium exploration company.

A 5 cm foam cube produced by CanAlaska Uranium Limited, an exploration company, to promote the use of uranium in carbon-free energy production. Two faces of the cube feature the logo and contact information; the other four promote the use of uranium as an energy source.

A solid, 41cm-diameter, spherical “plastic” ball with an integral, 5 cm inside-diameter, molded neck.  The usage of the artifact, believed to have been constructed at Chalk River in the 1950s, is uncertain. Measurements of density yield a value of ~1.07 g/cubic centimeter, indicating it is plastic as opposed to glass.  A crease on the outside surface and two distinct layer boundaries indicate the ball was poured in a slightly-flexible mold in at least three pourings.  The 5 cm diameter (2”) neck suggests that the artifact was an early attempt to develop a spherical scintillation ball that could be tightly coupled to the 2” diameter photomultiplier tubes readily available in that period.  In usage, both the ball and the phototube would have been enclosed in a lightproof container.

One of a set of beta electroscopes developed and patented at Chalk River in the 1940s under the leadership of Hugh Carmichael for the accurate measurement of radioactivity. This model, believed to be a Type T.Q.V. (see artifact 2023-017) does not bear a nameplate but does have the (Serial?) number 246 stamped on the body. It is built on a 21 cm diameter circular, adjustable base and stands 35 cm tall. Like 2023-017, it has a separate high-voltage connector at the base. It also has a separate, fully-contained, metal housing the light bulb (and possibly other items) attached to the experimental chamber. The connector to the box an 8-pin low-voltage one. It is not clear what signals/power was supplied to this connector.

One of a set of beta electroscopes developed and patented at Chalk River in the 1940s under the leadership of Hugh Carmichael for the accurate measurement of radioactivity. This Type T.Q.V., Serial No. 19, specimen is believed to be a precursor to the more sophisticated and polished Type T.Q.Q.B. models (Artifacts 2023-015 and 2023-016). It is built on a 21 cm diameter circular, adjustable base and stands 35 cm tall. Partial disassembly led to the discovery of the hemispherical copper base on which a ~1mm thick mounting post exits from which, under “just-right” lighting, the crucial, ~6 micron thick, gold-plated, quartz indictor fibers are mounted. This unit bears an NRX number tag of T 4057.

One of a set of beta electroscopes developed and patented at Chalk River in the 1940s under the leadership of Hugh Carmichael for the accurate measurement of radioactivity. (See artifact 2023-015.) This would appear to be a modified version of a Type T.Q.Q.B.. The name plate seen on 2023-015 is absent. This unit appears to be unique in that the others have highly enclosed observation heads whereas this unit is made of Plexiglass. Only after very careful observation, with lighting from an oblique angle was it noted that the thin quartz fibers used in these types of electrographs are still intact in this unit.

One of a set of beta electroscopes developed and patented at Chalk River in the 1940s under the leadership of Hugh Carmichael for the accurate measurement of radioactivity.  The principle behind them was the detection of the rate of movement of thin (~6 micron) quartz fibres as beta decay introduced negative charges into a chamber.  Movement of these fibers was measured under a microscope.  The units were built on a 30 cm by 15 cm base and stood 30 cm tall.  The radioactivity was introduced on an accurately machined holder and slid into a highly reproducible position.  It is believed that numerous units were made, of different but similar design.  This model was a Type T.Q.Q.B. with serial number 242.

A, variable output, 300 dc maximum, high-voltage power supply built for charging electroscopes.  Output is via a 4-pin connector on the front panel.  No circuit diagram is available but it is believed, based on the electroscope designs, that two of the output pins also served to provide low-voltage power to the light bulbs used to illuminate the quartz fibers in the electroscope.  The supply stands 18 cm tall and was built by the “Canadian Signals Research & Development Est.” in March 1947.  It is assumed they were contracted by NRC, who made the electroscopes.  This unit, a TYPE 44-i-D, bears the Serial number of 6.

A hand-painted ,wooden-construction, sign originally on the outside wall of Building 116 at Chalk River. The sign, which measures 48 cm by 79, was recovered from demolition debris when the building was torn down. Building 116, located just outside the Active Area, housed the General Physics Branch and workshops that served both Buildings 114 and 115.

Two, 9 cm long, 40X pocket microscopes.  These microscopes, made by the King Microscope Company of Japan, were used as inspection scopes in the Physics Division of Chalk River during the 1950s.  Both were wrapped and packaged in their original boxes when donated.

A 1940s-era wooden chair that once was used by the staff of Defence Industries Limited (DIL), the management company given the task, in 1943-44, of constructing of the physical plant at Chalk River and of the town of Deep River.  A stamped notice on the bottom of the chair reads “ D-I-L REPAIRS MADE 6 1943” presumed to be June 1943.  Heavy, crossed wires have been added to strengthen the back of the chair and are assumed to be “the repair”.

A vintage, 17 cm long, Tungar, Catalogue No. 189048, rectifier bulb.  These types of rectifier bulbs were manufactured by General Electric and were used before the invention of solid-state rectifiers as half-wave rectifiers for the conversion of AC electrical currents into DC current.  They were primarily used in the early days for charging batteries.   This tube was part of a collection used at Chalk River by the Physics Division.  The tube was donated in a box with a circuit drawn on the outside depicting usage in a 25 V dc application.

A then “state-of-the-art”, high-accuracy, 0-150 V, 0-300 V and 0-750 V, Model 341, electrodynomometer voltmeter built in 1950 and used as a calibration instrument for other run-of-the-mill meters in the CRNL laboratory.  The meter, built by the Weston Electric Instrument Corporation of Newark, N.J., USA is housed in a sturdy wooden box that measures 21 cm by 27 cm and is 15 cm high.

A 30 cm by 38 cm, brass, plaque whose inscription reads: “Nuclear Power Demonstration (Prototype CANDU Reactor).  For demonstrating the concept of the distinct-design, horizontal, pressure-tube, natural-uranium fueled, heavy water moderated and cooled CANDU reactor with on-power fueling. Designated as a Nuclear Historic landmark, November 2002 by the American Nuclear Society.”  The back of the plaque contains some details of the construction and an instruction that “No Diamond Shield”, presumably a polish, should be used to buff the surface.

A desk lamp based on a 19-element CANDU fuel bundle.  The fuel bundle section measures 16.5 cm in length, which corresponds to 1/3 the length of a regular fuel bundle, and has a filler, presumed to be loose sand, to simulate the weight of a uranium-loaded bundle.  This type of bundle was used at the NPD and Douglas Point reactors.  A date of 1971 is stamped on one of the endplates.  Items of this type were often used as retirement gifts for employees.

A framed, matted, 11 cm by 16 cm, black and white photograph of C.J. Mackenzie presented to J.L. Gray.  The signed inscription reads “ To Lorne Gray, with kindest regards, C.J. Mackenzie”. The reverse indicates that the frame should be painted “Dull Black – the word Flat is crossed out in preference of Dull”.

A framed, matted, 11 cm by 16 cm, black and white photograph of Dr. D.A. Keys give to J. Lorne Gray by Dr. Keys.  The inscription reads “ To  J. Lorne Gray with kindest regards from your colleague and friend.  David A. Keys. May 14^th, 1957.”

A 10 cm by 13 cm, wooden framed document dated Feb. 17, 1954, authorizing Dr. D.A. Keys “To operate controls associated with the N.R.X. Control System in accordance with N.R.X. Policy 1-2”.  The authorization was given, and is signed, by G. (Gib) M. James, Superintendent of the NRX Reactors Branch.  This was a historic event in that it allowed Dr. Keys to initiate the restart procedure of NRX after the serious accident of December 1952.

A set of six wine bottles of various vintages commemorating events at the University of Toronto SLOWPOKE-1 and -2 reactors.  Inside the bottles were rolled-up sheets (or scraps) of paper describing the event and the signatures of the attendees.  Events range from First Criticality on SLOWPOKE-1 (1971), 10 000 kWh achieved (1972), upgrade to SLOWPOKE-2 (1976), additional shims installed (1988) and 25^th anniversary (1996).  A sixth bottle existed but had no note or any available information.  Signatures, when decipherable, are in the References section below. The reactor was shut down in 1998 but no vintage containers from that event came with the set donated.

The 8-pi spectrometer was a complex spectrometer built at Chalk River for detailed nuclear physics measurements. The spectrometer contained many complex-shaped, bismuth-germanate (BGO), scintillator detectors.  The geometry made assembly very difficult.   Because the spectrometer elements were rather heavy, it was an engineering challenge to hold the components without attenuating gamma rays destined for detection or blocking access to the outer set of high-resolution detectors.  These dummy modules, approximately 23 cm in length and of comparable mass, were used in development and verification of the support structure. Following the shutdown of TASCC in 1997, the spectrometer was moved to other nuclear physics laboratories within North America.

A collection of ten (typically 30cm by 40 cm) photographs of projects in the Accelerator Physics Branch (APB) over the 1970-1995 period.  These depict the Laser Beat Wave Accelerator (LBWA), the High Current Test Facility (HCTF), the superconducting cyclotron of the Tandem And SuperConducting Cyclotron (TASCC) accelerator and IMPELA, the high-power Industrial Materials Electron Test Accelerator.  The APB was shut down in 1996 and these were artifacts collected during decommissioning.

A pewter mug, autographed by fifty co-workers and given to Audrey Santon in 1967 when she left the Reactor Research Division for another area of AECL at Chalk River.  The Inscription reads “Best of Luck, Audrey, From R.R.D., 1954-1967”. 

A 47 cm by 62 cm, cut-away depiction of the RD-14M reactor loop.  The loop, installed near WR-1 at the Whiteshell laboratories, consisted of two full-scale, full power (6 MW), fuel channels each containing a 37-element electrically-heated bundle to simulate full-power operation.  A wide range of experiments, including ones dealing with Loss of Coolant Accidents (LOCA) simulations were carried out on this large (37 m tall), highly-instrumented loop.

A 51 cm by 66 cm, hardboard-backed, diagram of a fueling machine for a Horizontal Pressure Tube Reactor (HPTR).  The diagram, Figure 5 from an unidentified publication, was donated by the family of Dennis Harvey and was believed to have been generated at Chalk River.  A search of the literature revealed that it was an early (~1956) design for a CANDU-type reactor by Canadian Westinghouse Limited in Hamilton where Dennis Harvey had worked.  This design for a fueling machine was pre-empted by a newer design for single fuel bundle loading.  The newer design was first used at the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor at Rolphton ON and similar designs were later used at all CANDU units.

A framed, 20 cm by 25 cm, colour photograph of the accelerator commissioning crew for the 50 kw, IMPELA,  industrial accelerator on the night, 1989, April 14, when first beam was achieved.  This accelerator was part of a program by AECL to develop high-power electron beams for a range of industrial applications.  Accelerator development was led by the Accelerator Physics Branch at Chalk River and applications were investigated by the Radiation Applications Branch at WNRE.

Two, enamel and yarn, Korean, wall hangings. The enameled plaques, depicting Korean cranes, are 15 cm in diameter and the overall length of the hangings is 105 cm. During the 1980s AECL contracted to provide employees of the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) nuclear-related training via the “40 Man-year Training Program”.  On completion of the program these hangings were given to Bill Howatt and Eva Gallagher in appreciation for their part in providing human resources support for the trainees and their families and assisting them in adapting to Canadian living.

A large (104 cm tall by 78 cm wide) wooden plaque depicting the periodic table.  The artifact was designed and fabricated for the Canadian Nuclear Society (CNS) by Dave Morrison in 2004 and features, wherever possible, sample vials of the elements on the table.  Where samples are unobtainable because the elements are gases, very toxic, radioactive or are metals unstable in air, photographs of the material are used in the vials.  Those elements that have such short half-lives that even photographs of samples cannot be obtained are denoted by the nuclear trefoil.

A replica, zirconium-sheathed, fuel element of the type used in the 28-element fuel bundles used in the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station (PNGS).  The 50 cm element has been loaded with lead to simulate the weight of a natural uranium loaded one.

A replica of a 28-element, 50 cm long, fuel bundle used in the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station (PNGS) reactors. 

A model HS Leeds and Northrup galvanometer.  The device, which is 20 cm in height, was used to measure very small currents before sensitive electronic devices became available.  The current passed through the device caused an electric coil, to which a mirror was attached, to rotate.  The angle of deflection was then calibrated to indicate the current.  Shunts and/or resistors could be used to alter the sensitivity.  This device was used in the Nuclear Physics Branch at Chalk River in conjunction with artifacts 2022-048 and 2022-049.

Early measurements of extremely small currents used sensitive galvanometers which depended on the deflection of a mirror on a coil to determine the current.  To increase the length of the path from the mirror to the observer and hence increase the deflection seen and therefore the sensitivity, a lamp and mirror system was used between the observer and the galvanometer.    This system was developed by Leeds and Northrup for use with the galvanometers catalogued as artifacts 2022-048 and 2022-050. This device was used by Nuclear Physics Branch at Chalk River.

A pair of highly-sensitive, Leeds and Northrup, Model 2239 galvanometers.  These devices, which measure 15 cm in width and 24 cm in height, were used to measure extremely small currents during the 1940s and 1950s before the development of sensitive electronic meters. A small current through the device produced a deflection of the mirror attached to a coil placed within a magnet.  The degree of deflection was related to the current.  One of these devices, labeled 2239-F, appears well used while the other, (2239-B), appears to have its original packing for shipping.  These devices were used by the Nuclear Physics Branch at Chalk River.

Four 51 cm by 76 cm, mounted, photographs showing the transport in 1961, by four large trucks, of the major components of the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) nuclear reactor being constructed at Rolphton, ON, from the General Electric machine shops in Peterborough, ON, where they had been fabricated.  The “TPT” logo of the Toronto Peterborough Transport Company Limited, the trucking company, is featured at the bottom of each photograph along with the statements “Photo courtesy of Jordan Tanner” and “Convoy of components on route to Rolphton, On (1961).”

A group of five matted and framed photographs of various nuclear sites that Ron Cecil had worked at during his career with Ontario Hydro and AECL.  The professionally-framed artefacts, each measuring approximately 38 cm by 33 cm, display aerial photographs of the NPD reactor (two views), the Douglas Point site, the Pickering nuclear generating station and the Chalk River laboratories.

A set of four identification cards used by Ron Cecil, an Ontario Hydro and later AECL employee at Chalk River, to allow access to various sites during CANDU reactor commissioning.  One, which is double-sided, was used during the commissioning of the CANDU-600 at EMBALSE, Argentina.  Another was used at Pt. Lepreau.  It is not known if the GE Canada card refers to the operations at the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor or not. No information is known about the DANYL access card.

One of the approximately 10,000 Hammamatsu R1408 photomultiplier tubes used to detect radiation produced by neutrino-deuterium interactions at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO).  The nominal 8-inch (20.6 cm) diameter photomultiplier tubes were specially manufactured for the experiment using very low-background borosilicate glass and surrounded a large acrylic vessel located 2 km underground at the Creighton mine in Sudbury, ON.  The vessel contained 1,000 tonnes of heavy water on loan from AECL.  The large SNO collaborative team showed that neutrinos change “flavour” on their trip to the earth from the Sun, thereby solving a long-standing “missing-neutrino” puzzle.  The leader of the experiment, Art McDonald, a Chalk River alumnus, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his part in the project.

An 8 cm tall, glass, sample container holding about 60 ml of heavy water (D2O).  This artifact was used by Malcolm Harvey of the Chalk River Laboratories as an exhibit in his public talks about the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) to various community and school groups.  Although Malcolm, who at that time was Division Director, Physics, did not directly participate in the SNO project, he was a keen promotor of the experiment.  The SNO experiment required 1000 tonnes of highly- purified D2O, which it was able to obtain on loan from AECL. Reactions between neutrinos and the heavy water showed that exchanges in neutrino “flavour” occur and helped solve the problems associated with “missing neutrinos”.

A 49 cm by 60 cm, mounted photograph of the Embalse Nuclear Power Station located near Cordoba, Argentina.  The Embalse reactor is a nominal 650 MWe CANDU reactor that was commissioned in 1983.  In addition to electrical generation, the unit has been used extensively for the production of Co-60.  It was built by an Italian-Canadian consortium formed by AECL, acting as the supplier of the nuclear portion, and Italimpianti, who supplied the conventional portion of the plant.

A relatively compact, 30 cm long, scientific slide rule typically used by students, scientists and engineers for mathematical calculations until about 1975 when the first “desktop” electronic calculators became readily available.  This Faber-Castell unit was one of several models made by the company and was manufactured in the 1955-1965 era.

A 45 cm by 60 cm, hardboard-mounted, colour, aerial photograph of the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station (DNGS). The DNGS, which consists of four nominal 850 MWe CANDU reactors (total output 3.5 GWe) is located in Durham County on the shores of Lake Ontario.  The last of the four reactors was put into operation in 1993.

A dress necktie produced in 1987 marking the 25^th anniversary of the first nuclear-generated power in Canada.  The Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor went on line at Rolphton, ON, in 1962. The tie was given to guests and past employees invited to the ceremony to mark the event.

An outline image of the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) generating station presented to Ron Cecil for his 15 years of service.  The engraved plastic sheet is mounted on a 10 cm by 25 cm wooden base and stands 15 cm tall overall.

One of the three, 23 cm by 30 cm, wooden backed, engraved, metal plaques awarded  by the American Nuclear Society to CRNL researchers P.J. Fehrenbach, P.A. Morel and R.D. Sage  for their paper entitled ”In-Reactor Measurement of Cladding Strain: Fuel Density and Relocation Effects”.  The paper, given at the American Nuclear Society Meeting of June 9-12, 1980, was judged to be “A Significant Contribution to Material Science and Technology for the Successful Harnessing of Nuclear Energy to Benefit Mankind”.  This particular plaque, on a red coloured background was awarded to the lead author, Paul Fehrenbach. 

A 76 cm long handle, for a wood-chopping/cutting axe, given to Thomas Daniel O’Brien, a long-time Chalk River employee, when he retired from AECL in December 1976 after 30 years of service.  Tom had worked in the Rod Bays of NRU/NRX.  The axe handle, to help ease him into retirement at his rural home and wood lot is signed by over 130 of his many friends and co-workers at CRNL.

A framed, 61 cm tall by 80 cm wide, oil painting described by the artist, Derek Lister as; “An original oil painting inspired by the high-temperature water loop in Building 250 that was used for the first experimental research contract from EPRI in about 1982.”  Derek Lister was a Chemical Engineer at Chalk River. He later left AECL for a position of Research Chair in Nuclear Engineering at the University of New Brunswick and in 2020 was honoured by being made a Member of the Order of Canada. The painting is titled 250 HS – in deference to Building 250.

A laminated, 57 cm tall by 37 cm wide, poster made as a copy of a gouache painting presented to Eric LeSurf of Chalk River in 1978 when he left AECL to join London Nuclear.  Eric had been a key player in the development at Chalk River of the CAN-DECON process – a process developed to chemically reduce the crud and the associated radiation load in CANDU reactor components.  London Nuclear was a private company that commercialized the process and, under Eric’s leadership, successfully applied it to reactors world-wide.  Derek Lister, who painted the poster, was a co-worker of Eric’s in the development of CAN-DECON.   He later left AECL for the position of Research Chair in Nuclear Engineering at the University of New Brunswick and in 2020 was honoured by being made a Member of the Order of Canada.

An ultra-sensitive, electronic system manufactured by the Rank Taylor Hobson Corporation for sensing tilts down to the level of one arc-second.  This artifact called a Talyvel 1 (Model 112/854) was used in the Nuclear Physics Branch at Chalk River to align the accelerators used there and the associated beam line and experimental area components, and to insure they were as horizontally level as possible.  The Talyvel system consists of a 15 cm wide by 14 cm tall electronic detector-unit containing a damped pendulum whose position between two plates is differentially measured. A 20 cm tall by 18 cm wide by 17 cm deep, receiver-unit then amplifies the electronic signal from the detector and displays the result on a large mechanical meter. The electronic unit is capable of handling up to four detector units at one time, each of which can be switched on in turn.

A 17 cm tall by 11 cm wide, leatherette wallet issued by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) to commemorate the completion on April 7, 1995,  of the Hanaro research reactor.  This nominal 30 MW, MAPLE-style, reactor is located at Daejeon, Republic of Korea.  It was designed and commissioned with the assistance of AECL and achieved first criticality at 16:09 on 1995-02-08. The wallet contains a four-page foldout that explains the occasion and contains four commemorative stamps and a first-day issue envelope.  Details of the stamp design are also given.

An engraved, brass plaque mounted on a wooden backing and awarded to Paul Fehrenbach by the Canadian Nuclear Society “In recognition of your contribution in the pursuit of excellence in nuclear technology during your term as president No. 13”.  The wooden backing is 30 cm wide and 23 cm tall.  The engraved plate reads “Paul J. Fehrenbach  1993 1994” and bears the logo and name of the Canadian Nuclear Society.

A 24 cm by 18 cm piece of 1.5 cm thick, clear acrylic on which a dedication has been photo-etched.  It was presented to recognize Paul Fehrenbach of Chalk River for his service as Vice-president and then as President of the Pacific Nuclear Council over the period 2004-2006.  The plaque was presented at the 15^th Pacific Basin Nuclear Conference in Sydney, Australia, on October 19, 2006.

A 62 cm by 96 cm poster showing the elements of a CANDU6 pressure-tube inspection tool. The tool was developed at Chalk River and was used on Canadian and off-shore reactors to routinely measure the integrity of the pressure tube in the reactor during shutdowns.  It contained a number of ultrasonic and eddy current transducers as well as a linear, variable, differential-transformer to accurately measure pressure-tube dimensions and to detect flaws in the tube structure.

A vintage Weston, Model 1, direct-current voltmeter.  The Model 1 was developed by Edwin Weston in 1888 and served for many years as a prime standard for laboratories.  The particular unit (serial number 55180), which measures 17 cm in width and 15 cm in height, was manufactured and calibrated in 1946.  It was used in the Nuclear Physics Branch at CRNL. It had internal shunts to allow full-scale usage for 3, 15, or 150 volts dc.  The calibration sheet is attached to the reverse of the unit.

A 56 cm wide by 41 cm tall, framed, artist’s depiction of the pre-TASCC accelerator complex in Bldg. 114 at Chalk River.  The main feature of the facility is the MP tandem accelerator.  This accelerator was installed in 1965 and underwent several changes including an upgrade from the charging belts to the charging chains shown in this illustration and later, a reversal of the internal components and the position of the ion sources to convert for usage with the superconducting cyclotron in the TASCC configuration.  A notation on the back of the frame indicates the artifact originally belonged to Wayne Perry, a long-time technologist in the Nuclear Physics Branch.

A 61 cm wide, by 46 cm high, by 15 cm deep, wall-mountable, electrical box indicating the status of operation of both the tandem accelerator and the cyclotron of the TASCC complex at Chalk River.  The facility could be operated for lower energy beams by using the tandem only or the beam could be sent to the cyclotron to be further accelerated to higher energies before being transported to the experimental areas.  Several of these units were placed around the large facility to inform personnel as to the status of the accelerators. 

A 61 cm long 13 cm square cross-section, electrical box used in the TASCC control to indicate that the MP tandem accelerator at Chalk River was in operation and to indicate the voltage on the high-voltage terminal.  The tandem arrived at Chalk River in 1965 and was nominally a 10 MV (million volt) electrostatic accelerator but improvements over the years, including the use of a dust-free Pellatron charging system instead of the original charging belt, allowed operation up to 15.4 MV – the value at which the display from the decommissioned accelerator has been set to display. Operation of the accelerator ceased in 1997.

A 102 cm long by 15 cm wide manufacturer’s nameplate that used to be attached to the Model MP tandem accelerator at Chalk River. The 5mm thick, cast-aluminum plate was attached to the side of the accelerator and was rescued during the decommissioning and dismemberment of the accelerator in 1997.  This was the first MP accelerator built by High Voltage Engineering Corporation and arrived at Chalk River in 1965.  It was used for many nuclear physics experiments over the next two decades and later also served as an injector into the superconducting cyclotron to provide much higher energy particles for basic nuclear physics studies. Designed for a nominal 10 MV, it underwent improvements and operated at voltages up to 15.4 MV.

The double-sided, bilingual “shingle” that used to hang outside the entrance to the TASCC Accelerators and Development Branch office at Chalk River.  The sign, which measures 18 cm by 41 cm, was a standard plastic one used outside offices and laboratories at Chalk River during the 1980-2000 era and was made of 3mm thick plastic with white characters on the “AECL blue” background and featured the gold “flying A” logo.

A 50 cm wide by 41 cm tall, 0.8 cm thick, brass, plate cast as a duplicate of the “official opening” plaque of the TASCC facility and modified for use at the entrance of the vault housing the superconducting cyclotron.  This duplicate of the “master plaque” (artifact 2022-021) was altered by simply removing a 6 cm wide slice referring to the “official opening”.  This modified unit was mounted near the cyclotron itself.  It also differs in colour from the master as it was painted blue on the unraised sections to match the colour of the cyclotron.

A 50 cm wide by 47 cm tall, 0.8 cm thick, brass plate cast to commemorate the official opening of the Tandem Accelerator SuperConducting Cyclotron (TASCC) facility on 1986 October 03 by Robert Despres, Chairman of the Board of AECL.  The plate features the stylized depiction of the cyclotron and the “tascc” logo on a background of a stylized periodic table.  The plaque stood on the outside of the facility.  On the back it featured four bosses with setscrews that allowed it to be held to 1 cm posts imbedded on the wall. The facility featured a High Voltage Engineering MP model tandem accelerator and a superconducting cyclotron built at Chalk River by the Accelerator Physics Branch. The facility was decommissioned in 1997 due to financial constraints and largely dismantled for recycling.

A 25 cm long, aluminum, depiction of the Chalk River MP tandem accelerator where John McKay worked for many years.  The artifact was given to John at the end of his tenure in the Tandem Operations branch in 1996 and was intended to be used as a pencil holder. The diameter at the center is 5 cm and the artifact bears the signatures of thirty-nine of John’s co-workers.  The dedication reads ”John McKay, TASCC, 1989-1996”. 

An undated, 40 cm by 50 cm, black and white, photograph showing the top of the NRX reactor. The photograph bears an AECL number of 1806-1, which unfortunately does not give any indication of the date the photograph was taken.

A 50 cm by 40 cm, black and white, aerial photograph of the Chalk River site mounted on matboard.   The photograph is undated but bears an AECL number of 6406-4100-6.  After about 1970, most Chalk River photographers labeled their photos so that the first four digits indicated the year and month – in this case perhaps 1964 June.  The presence of the library auditorium (built 1957) and the absence of Building 600 (constructed 1967) indicate this to be the probable date.

A 16 cm by 20 cm poster showing the cut-away cross-section of the proposed, passive-operation, “nuclear battery”.  This development program was carried out at the Whiteshell Laboratories during the late 1980s and the 1990s. The “battery”, designed to have a thermal output of ~2.4 MW was proposed for remote communities as a replacement for fossil fuels.  It used enriched-uranium fuel encased as a coated powder and assembled as elements inside a graphite core/moderator.  The graphite served as a heat sink.  Energy from the graphite was extracted by liquid-potassium-based, closed-loop, heat pipes.  Heat to the outside world was then transferred from the upper parts of the heat-pipes.  The signatures of a number of people involved with the program are on the front of the poster but are unreadable.  A list of the people and a short note is written on the back, possibly at the time of the termination of the project.

A 21 cm by 5 cm, cardboard Shop Cost Calculator for determining the costs for multiples of identical parts manufactured in a machine shop.  Available inputs are labour cost per hour, operations per minute and even additional costs such as overheads. 

The calculator was developed by General Electric (GE) and this 1953 version has  shop-labour costs varying between $0.50 and $4.00 per hour.  Inflation has certainly changed that!  The reverse of the calculator has GE prices per unit length of various diameter rods of various metal or price per square inch of sheets of varying thickness. The name on the front is that of Alex Harvey, an engineer at Chalk River in the Accelerator Physics Branch during the design of the Intense Neutron Generator in the 1960s.

A 21 cm by 8 cm, double-sided, Reflectometer and Mismatch Error calculator.  This cardboard-based slide rule was used to calculate mismatches between couplers, which are used to divide the signal in a radiofrequency (rf) waveguide into two other waveguides, one of which allowed measurement of the rf power.  It would have been used by personnel in the Accelerator Physics Branch at Chalk River where couplers were used to measure power levels in the radiofrequency systems used to power accelerator cavities.  This artifact was manufactured by Hewlett-Packard, a prominent supplier of rf instrumentation.

A cardboard-based, 23 cm by 10 cm long, slide rule giving the properties of rigid radiofrequency (rf) waveguides of various sizes and materials as a function of frequency. The double-sided slide rule covers the frequency range from 0.32 to 325 GHz and was used by personnel in the Accelerator Physics Branch at Chalk River to determine the optimum waveguides to be used to guide rf power from the transmitters (power sources) to the rf accelerating structures.  This artifact was developed and supplied by Microwave Development Labs. Inc of Natick, Mass., who were a leading manufacturer of waveguides.

A circular slide rule consisting of two concentric plastic circles which can be rotated with respect to each other and a rotatable cursor that allows a number of readings to be made.  This device, called a Radio Transmission Line Calculator, or more commonly a Smith Chart, in honour of its inventor P.H. Smith of the Bell Telephone Labs., was first put into use around 1937. 

It was used near radiofrequency devices to predict and confirm the transmission properties and the sizes of the radiofrequency waves of the emitted radiation from a transmitter.  Detailed instructions as to the use of the calculator are included on the reverse face of the device.  It measures 23 cm in outer diameter. Initial versions were produced by Bell Labs. This version was manufactured by Emeloid Co. Ltd. of Hillside N.J. in 1944.

The artifact was used primarily by personnel in the Accelerator Physics Branch at Chalk River where large radiofrequency power sources were installed.

A 21 cm by 14 cm, 186 page, instruction manual published in 1962 by the Keuffel & Esser Co. (K&E) for their DECI-LON series of engineering-science slide rules.  The slide rules, which measured 25-50 cm in length typically had eight fixed scales on the body of the device and five scales on the slider section.  They were used extensively for engineering and scientific calculations with an accuracy of the order of 1 part in 2000.  The use of slide rules decreased greatly around 1974 when Hewlett-Packard introduced a series of hand-held calculators that were in a price range of ~$400 CDN and hence became affordable for many. A sales brochure describing the various models of K&E accompanied the manual.

A 37 cm by 37 cm, framed print presented to Paul Fehrenbach in 1981 when he left the Fuel Materials Branch. It depicts an important experiment he had led on the “Diameter vs Time at Power” for a fuel element.  The experiment was conducted at the NRU reactor at Chalk River.  The mat around the photo depicting the experiment was signed by members of the Fuel Materials Branch. In total, 32 signatures appear to be present but only the following 16 were still discernible.   Elio Mizzan, Ron Stack, Clive Wood, Doug Leach, Ron Syrie, Ray Chenier, Al lane, L.C. Berthaume, Les McLaughlin, Paul Morel, Shelley Harding, Ron Shade, Alan Ross, Len Norlock, Jim Conversi, Bob Elder.

A 17 cm by 20 cm, photo-metal, plaque featuring the Fuel Engineering Branch “Coat-of-Arms” mounted on a 23 cm by 30 cm wooden base.  The reverse of the wooden plaque presents the interpretation of the various items depicted on the plaque.  The plaque was presented to a member of Senior Management who was named on a smaller plaque below the “Coat-of-Arms” but, when he donated the artifact, he requested that his name be removed.  

A 21 cm by 30 cm, framed, “Diploma of Honour” awarded to Paul Fehrenbach of Chalk River on the occasion of his attendance at ceremonies celebrating the 30^th anniversary of the founding of the Institute of Nuclear Research at Pitesti in Romania.  Romania is one of the countries that has adopted the CANDU6 nuclear reactor for its electricity program and has two units installed.

A metal-engraved, wood-mounted plaque given to Paul Fehrenbach of Chalk River by the Seoul National University in 2000 in appreciation of his seminar given to the Department of Nuclear Engineering on the topic of “ Status of CANDU Feeder Plant Life Management (PLiC) Program".  Korea is one of the countries that has installed four CANDU6 reactors (Wolsung 1,2, 3 &4) as part of its nuclear-generated electricity program.  The wooden plaque measures 20 cm by 26 cm.

A 12 cm by 18 cm, loose-leaf, six-ring notebook used at CRNL for recording notes and data.  The black leatherette covers bears the title “ATOMIC ENERGY OF CANADA LIMITED” in gold, capital letters.  One of the entries shows a date of 1998.

A partial set of “field” notebooks used, in this case, to record count rates from a wide variety of radioactive samples. The “Counting” books, which bear the name of R.D. Warner of Office 34 (Building unknown) at CRNL, were used to record raw data over a period from December 1957 to March 1974. The 10 cm by 16 cm books are numbered with Roman numerals from II to X but only five of the initial ten remain in this collection.

A 16 cm diameter, decorated and engraved, glass memento issued by the Nuclear Power Institute of China (NPIC) and given to VIP visitors in recognition of contributions to the Qinshan reactor complex.  It was given to AECL visitors to celebrate the extended cooperation between Canada and China during the design, construction and commissioning of the installation of the CANDU reactors at the large Qinshan complex. 

 A 20 cm diameter, pewter, platter issued by the Nuclear Power Institute of China to commemorate the commercial operation of Quishan CANDU Unit 1 reactor.  The 600 MWe CANDU reactor was based on an AECL design but had a significant Chinese component.  The platter denotes Canadian-Chinese co-operation with joint flags and company symbols on the front and back.  It was issued January 2003.

A mat-backed, 35 cm by 28 cm, colour aerial photograph of the Perch Lake basin taken in 1980 October.

A large (47cm by 35 cm) photograph,  showing a  meeting of AECL Senior Management.  The photo is undated but  bears the AECL Reference number 4275. The group is assembled in front of Bldg. 513 at Chalk River.  Not all of the participants have been identified. The presence of several of the participants points to a date in the early 1960s.

A set of six, 27 cm by 35 cm, engineering drawings of CANDU fuel bundles designed for use at Douglas Point (19 element), Gentilly (19 and 36 element), Pickering (28 element) and Bruce (28 and 37 element) Nuclear Generating Stations. 

A set of six, 22 cm diameter, transparent, shallow glass plates.  These plates are made of a uranium-loaded, yellowish glass and were made starting as early as 1830 and continued to be made until the early 1940s when uranium ore became much more valuable because it became a source of fuel for the nuclear industry.  There are no marks to indicate a manufacturer of the artifacts.  The glass is also sometimes called Depression Glass and the loading of uranium dioxide varied from about 0.1% to 25 % depending on the factory. The plates emit a  green glow when under ultraviolet lighting.

A duplicate of a 3.43 m long assembly used in an NRU irradiation channel to investigate the creep of reactor materials used for fuel cladding and fuel channels under different neutron fluences and at different operating temperatures.  The assembly consists of six modules mounted around a central annular hanger tube.  The entire assembly is then placed inside another annual tube partially filled with reactor fuel.  The lower three modules sit below the level of the annular fuel while the upper three are above the fuel annulus and hence experience a lower neutron flux.  Cooling water is passed through the entire assembly to remove excess heat.  All six modules can contain samples of various zirconium alloys and are equipped with heaters and thermocouples to monitor and maintain the samples at the desired test temperatures.  This unit was never used in the reactor but was built as a spare.

A copy of the assembly used in the NRU reactor at Chalk River for the production of molybdenum 99.  The assembly has a total length of almost 7.9 m and is 7.5 cm in diameter, a dimension designed to fit in a fuel channel location in the reactor.  It has been dismantled in two parts in the display.  The isotope production section has a four-fold symmetry. Each water-cooled segment contains four, 18 cm long, aluminum-finned, pencils.  The individual pencils consist of a central rod, 5.5 mm in diameter, of enriched uranium alloyed with aluminum which is then clad with a 2 mm coating of aluminum. High water flow along the pencils provides the required cooling. 

Following irradiation for typically 13 days, the rod is disassembled into two sections, the irradiated pencils are removed and are mechanically and chemically disassembled to extract molybdenum 99 – a fission product. During NRU operation, as much as 67% of the global supply of molybdenum was being produced at NRU.

A truncated, spare, remote-access tool designed for the repair of a serious leak, which occurred in May, 2009, in the aluminum calandria of the National Universal Reactor (NRU).  The tool, which is now reduced to 5.4 m in length, is mounted on a rectangular, steel strongback.  The strongback was required to support the relatively delicate tool, which was originally 11.6 m in length, when it was shifted from a horizontal to a vertical position for insertion into the calandria via one of the 12 cm diameter fuel channels.   

The tool was rapidly developed in 2009 following a leak in the NRU calandria, 9 m below the reactor deck.  The calandria leak resulted in a major shortage of medically-critical isotopes worldwide.  A series of tools that allowed personnel to clean, inspect, repair (via remote weld) and qualify the reactor for return to service were developed.  They would enter the tool at the top and then emerge via an open section at the bottom end.  Repairs were successfully made at a number of locations and the reactor was back in operation 15 months after shutdown. To allow display in the museum, 6.25 m of the central section of the tool was removed.

A collection of four, paper and wood, models of magnet configurations often used in particle-accelerator applications.  Graham Lee-Whiting was a theoretical physicist at Chalk River who participated in the design of numerous magnetic systems used for the physics and applied-accelerator programs at Chalk River.  He built these models to help explain the effects of the various shapes of magnets on ion beam trajectories in his lectures to colleagues and to students.

A collection of eighteen glass-art pieces made by Rex Bailie, glass blower extraordinaire, who worked for many years in the Chalk River glass-blowing shop that was a part of Applied Physics.   In addition to producing many extremely-complicated, glass-based, pieces of research equipment, Rex used his equipment at Chalk River in his spare time to produce lovely pieces of art.  One of his favourite subjects was a marlin swordfish and ten of the eighteen pieces feature it in their stems in various sizes and colours.  Serpents are featured in two other pieces.  The artifacts vary from 6 cm to 25 cm in height and vary widely in complexity.  Some were used as gifts and display dedication messages which are ground into the glass.

A 52 cm by 61 cm, hardboard backed, 1990s era, aerial colour photograph of the Chalk River site looking toward the west.

A 44 cm by 59 cm, hardboard mounted, composite set of two photographs taken of the “Plant” from the Ottawa River.  The upper photograph shows the construction phase about 1946 and the latter is a view from around the year 2000.

Two, 1/5 scale, models of CANDU fuel bundles used in an experiment aimed to simulate effects that could lead to a disassembly of a CANDU core.  The 10 cm long by 2 cm diameter units are made of tungsten and equipped with heaters and thermocouples to allow the simulation of fuel behavior under very low-probability, loss-of-cooling conditions. They were part of the Core Disassembly Facility (CDF) at the Chalk River Laboratories where up to four CANDU-type, 1/5 scale, channels were used to investigate pressure-tube sag under various conditions.  Tungsten, which has a high density as well as a high melting point, was used as the material for the bundles to simulate the behaviour of uranium oxide under similar conditions.

A laminated, “preliminary”, scale 1” to 2 miles, topographical map of “Chalk River, Renfrew County, Nipissing District, Pontiac and Temisamingue Counties”.  The map covers latitude from 46 degrees to 46 degrees 30 minutes and longitude from 76 degrees to 77 degrees.  It contains a note to say that it was “Surveyed and complied by the Topographical Survey from air photographs taken by the RCAF and issued in 1942”. The map is approximately 100 cm by 80 cm in size.  A note on the reverse states that it “Belonged to W.B. Lewis (of CRNL) and was given to Mary Moore by Lewis’s sister Gwynned Gerry in November of 1993.

A 75 cm by 100 cm, colour illustration of the 120 kV accelerator used for the study of materials surfaces and the channeling of ions in crystals.  This comparatively low-energy accelerator was used by an experimental, materials-study group at Chalk River under the leadership of John Davies.  Experiments included the study of gases absorbed on catalyst surfaces and the discovery that heavy ions injected into crystals at certain specific angles can be “channeled” along certain axes in the crystal for much longer distances than normally predicted.  The Chalk River group relocated to the campus of Western University in London, ON, during the 1980s to form a new material-studies group there.

Nuclear physicists had a need for thin targets of a wide variety of isotopes for use with accelerator beams.  These targets were normally manufactured by vacuum evaporating  mg quantities of the often-rare isotope on thin polyvinyl acetate (PVA) films. Three specimens, glued to the tops of specimen jars for demonstration purposes, are here.  One is simply a thin layer of PVA, the second is a thin, gold target evaporated on PVA and the third is a thin, tungsten target evaporated on a metal backing.  The purpose of the latter is unknown.  In addition to targets of this type, thin stripper foils of similar size and geometry were produced in this lab and were used at the TASCC facility to strip electrons from beams to increase their charge before further acceleration. Two signs from the laboratory complete the artifact.

A 16 cm by 25 cm, colour photograph of many of people who had served as Senior Reactor Shift Engineers (SRSEs) at the Chalk River National Research Universal (NRU) over the 60 years from 1957 to 2017.  The anniversary was marked on November 5, 2017, with a dinner, a tour and a photo-op in the NRU control room. 

A 28 cm by 43 cm, laminated poster listing the names of all the known Senior Reactor Shift Engineers (SRSE) who had worked on the National Research Universal reactor.  The list was generated in 2017 to mark 60 years of operation of the reactor.  The names (108 of them) are printed on a background “watermark” depicting the core of the reactor.

A set of four slate (or slate-like) beverage coasters in a holder.  The coasters were manufactured to mark 60 years of operation of the National Research Universal (NRU) at Chalk River.  The reactor started up in 1957.  The coasters are 9 cm in diameter and the map of the reactor core with its various rods is printed on the front surface.

A 22 cm by 28 cm sign, covered with a plexiglass cover, recovered from the desk of Andre Cipriani. Andre Cipriani was a highly-respected, internationally-recognized, scientist who was the first Director the Biology Division at Chalk River.  He was a very popular person both at work and in the community and the sign from his desk was very representative of both his work and community attitude.  He died suddenly of a stroke at the age of 47 years in 1956.

A 32 cm by 23 cm, framed, black and white photograph showing a group of Chalk River managers and three unidentified people.  A hand-written notation on the reverse reads  ”USA Office”.  Since the USA maintained a liaison office at Chalk River for an extended  period of time, the non-AECL employees are probably members of this office. Starting at the left the identified people are: Lloyd Elliott, David Keys, Les Haywood, ?, WB Lewis, ?, Art Marko, Art Ward and ?

A 32 cm by 39 cm, photo-collage showing various scenes both from the town of Deep River and from the laboratories at Chalk River.  The caption at the bottom reads “Chalk River, 1959”.  Town scenes include sailing on the Ottawa and an areal view while laboratories scenes show the existing reactors, the Model FN tandem accelerator and prominent AECL pioneers including  J.L. Gray, W.B. Lewis and D. Keys.

A 1955-era  Identification Card issued to Al Bancroft.  The laminated, 5 cm by 9 cm, card contains name, title, signature and photograph on the front, together with the signature of the issuing security officer.  The reverse has a right index fingerprint of the employee along with personal details, the date of issue and the employee number.  Al Bancroft worked for AECL, almost exclusively at Chalk River, from 1954 to 1991 in a variety of roles.

A sample of both the paper punch cards and paper tape used both for input and output from digital computers in the 1960-1990 era.

A  manual produced at Chalk River  in 1977 for the use of AECL secretaries.  The 18 cm by 23 cm, loose-leaf binder has sections containing information on the company organization, including the names and contact-points of members Board of Directors, and  individual sections on “how-to” prepare memoranda, letters, reports etc.  It also has a section that is a stores catalogue.

An antler-horn-handled, pewter, beer mug presented to Art Marko as a gift marking his retirement. Art, who worked at CRNL from 1961 to 1989 and who received international recognition for his work in the field of radiation protection, was Director of the Health Sciences Division at the time of his retirement in April, 1989.  The engraved message reads “Best Wishes For Your Retirement, Dr. A.M. Marko, April 1989, Ken & Donna”.  Ken Whitlock and Donna Termarsh were members of the Health Sciences Division support staff who had served for many years during Art’s tenure as Division Director.

A left-handed, pewter, beer-mug presented to A. M. Marko of Chalk River by the Canadian Radiation Protection Agency (CRPA/ACRP) in recognition of his service as Agency President during 1981/1982.  Art Marko was a long-time member of the agency.  In 1990, he received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Agency and in 1991 he was awarded the Founder’s Award (later renamed the Richard V. Osborne Award, in honour of his long-time Chalk River colleague who succeeded Art as Health Physics Director at Chalk River in 1989 following his retirement.)

A stainless-steel-based table lamp designed to depict the famous double helix model of DNA.  The lamp, with an 18 cm diameter base and a 50 cm tall helix, was presented to Art Marko of Chalk River on the occasion of his retirement from a long career in the Health Sciences Division of CRNL.  The inscription button on the base reads: “Dr. A.M. Marko, Director, Health Sciences, 1961-1989, A.E.C.L. Chalk River”

A 20-pin, Atari, computer-games cartridge measuring 11 cm by 6 cm by 3 cm and used to distribute the SCHOONSCHIP algebra program.  The program, one of a kind, was developed by Martinus Veltman (1999 Nobel physics laureate) at CERN in the 1970s to run on the large CDC6300-series computers. Veltman later left CERN and moved to the University of Michigan where, in an outstanding  feat of computer programming, he translated the SCHOONSCHIP program, originally written in CDC machine language, to Motorola M6000 assembly language. He then distributed copies of the program on a games cartridge. The program was used at Chalk River to perform highly complex QCD (Quantum Chromodynamics) calculations that resulted in 13 publications, most of them performed on an inexpensive, stand-alone Atari (gaming) machine. The back of the cartridge displays a “skull and crossbones” which served as a warning that the program could be inadvertently destroyed if connected incorrectly to the Atari. 

A 32 cm by 47 cm, black and white, photo-collage assembled to show various work-related activities and locations that the reactor trainees from India visited in Canada, including a visit to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, during their training period at CRNL in 1956-1957.  An attached identification sheet names the Indian delegates as well as several AECL personnel.

A 26 cm tall, wooden, hand-carved moose presented by Local 1568, Technicians and Technologists Union, to Walter Woytowich on the occasion of his retirement from Chalk River in 1976.  Walter was one of the early technicians in the Physics Division at CRNL and one of the very first to retire from “paid employment”.  He continued many private ventures after his retirement.  The moose is carved out a single piece of ~35 long white pine by Hubert Klatt of Pembroke.  Hubert was a long-time carpenter at CRNL and retired just before Walter.  The Klatt family was well-known, nationally and internationally, for splendid wood carvings and similar carvings were presented as gifts to Canadian dignitaries such as Pauline McGibbon, former Lt. Gov of Ontario, former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and former Ontario Premier William Davis.  The moose was donated with a 20 cm by 30 cm photograph of the carver in action.

A 34 cm by 24 cm, cast, acrylic plaque presented as a “Recognition of Service” award to Morley Taylor by the Korea Electric Power Corporation for his contributions, as an AECL employee, to the construction of the CANDU units Wolsung 2, 3 and 4.  The plaque is highly decorated with inset segments of colourful aquatic shells.  The inscription is repeated in both Korean and English.  The award is addressed to AECL Mr. M.L. Tylor (sic) and reads: “This is to express our appreciation for your contribution to the construction of the Wolsung Nuclear Power Plant Units 2, 3 and 4 during your assignment from January 3, 1994, to July 2, 1996.  We are pleased to award this plaque in recognition of your meritorious service” and is dated July 2, 1996.   It was signed and presented by Yu Moo Sun, Construction Site Manager, Wolsung Nuclear Power Division, Korea Electric Power Corporation.

A 29 cm diameter “Plaque of Appreciation” presented to Morley L. Taylor by the KEPCO Electric Company for his efforts on the Wolsung reactors project.  The Wolsung reactors are CANDU reactors and the construction project was overseen by AECL personnel.  The plaque features the Korean and Canadian flags and reads, in Korean and English, “To commemorate your contribution to the construction of Wolsung 1, NPP, we, KEPCO members, present you with this plaque of appreciation as a sign of our warm friendship”.  A small panel above the outline of the reactor building has an engraved insert for the name “M.L. Taylor”.  The name is also engraved with Korean characters below the panel.

A 23 cm diameter, brass, ashtray presented to Morley L. Taylor of AECL, who was one of the Nuclear Construction Managers of the first CANDU in operation in Korea, Wolsung 1.  Morley’s period of work on the project was from July 1980 to August 1982.  The outer rim of the ashtray reads “Atomic Energy of Canada Limited”, “Nuclear Construction Managers”, “Korea Electric Company” and “Wolsung 1 Nuclear Power Plant” in both English and Korean. The reverse bears a sticker identifying the manufacturer of the ashtray as Ulsan Grand Co.

Fraser-Brace and Crawley McCracken (C-M) were the construction and catering companies, respectively, who were instrumental in the construction of both the CRNL facilities and the town of Deep River.  C-M continued to be associated with the CRNL site for more than 50 years.  This ashtray, measuring just over 12 cm in diameter, was originally believed to have been associated with their work during the  start of the nuclear industry.  It was actually made to commemorate the ALCAN Chute des Diablo dam in Quebec, which was one of the next projects undertaken by the two companies after the work at Chalk River.  The dates indicate the work was done during the 1950-1952 time frame.

The “hotline” telephone from the Control Room of the National Reactor Universal (NRU) at Chalk River dedicated solely as a contact point to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the case of an emergency occurring with the operation of the reactor.  The secure, dedicated-line, Model K-1500 P-D, telephone was manufactured by Viking Electronics.  Within NRU Operations it was nicknamed the “Bat Phone”.

A 26 cm by 32 cm, leatherette folder announcing the awarding, in 1972, by Queen Elizabeth II, of a Royal Medal to W.B. Lewis.  Also part of the artifact is a black and white photograph of W.B. Lewis holding the medal in its  case.  The award page in the binder reads ”A Royal Medal for the year 1972 has been awarded by Her Majesty  The Queen to Doctor Wilfred Bennett Lewis, C.B.E., F.R.S. , in recognition of his distinguished contributions to the science and technology of heavy water reactors for power generation”.  The inscription is signed by the President and Secretaries of the Royal Society of London and is dated St. Andrew’s Day, 1972.

A Model 450, sound-measuring meter made by H.H. Scott Inc. Maynard, Mass. USA.  The 16 cm long, metal-encased meter, can make direct measurements via an internal microphone or via an external signal.  It was donated along with an ElectoVoice Model 805, crystal-contact microphone with a ~5 m long cable.  With this input, it was used to detect vibrations in equipment.  This model of external microphone had originally been developed by ElectroVoice as a pickup for musical instruments.  The sound meter required a battery having an unusual voltage of 22.5 volts. The unit also had a 115V AC input for calibration purposes.  Manuals for operation both of the meter and the microphone were also supplied.  The entire assembly was housed in a wooden box. The sound meter has an AECL-NRX sticker and inventory number but it is unknown where within CRNL the instrument was used.

A vintage DC voltage and current meter.  Most early electricity measuring instruments were developed for a single purpose – separate ones for voltage, current and resistance.  This instrument, manufactured in the mid-1940s by Ernest Turner Electrical Instruments Inc., used internal shunts and allowed both DC voltage (0-5 V or 0-50 V) or DC current (0-50 mA or 0-500 mA) to be measured with the same compact device by attaching the test leads to different input posts.  The meter, contained in a metal box, measures about 9 cm in both height and width and is about 5 cm deep.  The Turner Company, located in High Wycombe, Bucks. England, manufactured a wide range of electrical equipment. It is not known where at the CRNL site this meter was used.

A 31 cm by 46 cm, brass plaque that was made for the official opening of Cockcroft Public School in Deep River, ON, which was named after Sir John Cockcroft.  The plaque, which was attached to the school walls in 1956, was later removed when the building became a condominium.  Plaques honouring the naming of both the Keys Public School and the Cockcroft School were unveiled at a ceremony on October 5, 1956.  Both Dr. Keys and Sir John Cockcroft attended the unveiling.

A pewter mug presented to Morley Taylor to mark his service in Operations at the National Research Reactor (NRU) at Chalk River over the period from 1962 to 1964.  The logo on this mug is somewhat unique in that the mug predates the introduction of the “Flying A” symbol for AECL and instead shows a stylized atom with four orbiting electrons.

A large-capacity beverage mug made using stainless-steel piping materials from the Pickering B CANDU nuclear-generating station.  The mug, which stands 16 cm in height, was presented to Morley Taylor of AECL in appreciation of his work on the redesign of the service piping at Pickering in 1979.  The plaque states “Morley Taylor, Pickering G.DS. “B”, Nuclear Piping, 1979”.

Three, 26 cm by 33 cm, photo albums containing photographs, clippings and personal communications about the lives of the family of Marcel Pochon over the period from 1913 to 1969.  Pochon, a nuclear chemist who worked originally with Marie Curie, was the leader in the radium-extraction work at Port Hope, Ontario.  He led the effort there from 1932 to 1945 when Eldorado Gold Mining, which operated the refinery, became a Crown Corporation.  The albums contain many details both about the family life of Pochon as well as his professional life and the many honours he received.

A read/write head for storing and retrieving information on the large (66 cm diameter) memory platters used on the CDC 6600 computer at CRNL.  A retiree, who worked on the CDC 6600, remembers the storage memory operation as follows:

"The disc platters were mounted on two spindles, each spindle had two groups of 16 platters and, during operation, would be rotating at 1800 rpm.  The read/write heads floated between the platters, such that one read/write head was able to read the surface above it, and below it.” 

The double-sided readers, with an overall length of 27 cm and a width of 5.5 cm, have a thickness of only 1.5 cm.  The disc-contacting heads, which could access six tracks on the platter at a time, were mounted on pivots to allow for imperfections in the disc surfaces.  Input/output of data was via a separate, 16-pin, connector for each surface.

A collection of eleven mounted photographs, typically 20cm by 30 cm in size, formerly used for displays in the Public Information Center (PIC) at Chalk River before security/terrorist concerns following the 9/11 attacks in the USA led to the shutting down of the Center. 

An 18 cm by 23 cm, mounted, photo of the CRNL group of employees, who were sent to assist with the commissioning of the Karachi Power Station in West Pakistan in 1969.  The 137 MWe station was also known as KANUPP-1.  Unfortunately, the insert photo of Doug Wright became detached sometime after 1969. The best available likeness from Society files was added in 2021.  The caption is repeated on the reverse of the photograph as is a note reporting “All seven and their dependents have now returned safely to Canada.”

A 26 cm by 32 cm, matted, photograph of a Chalk River group celebrating the retirement of long-time  Chalk River laboratories employee, John Holland, in the “private dining room” of the CRNL cafeteria in 1975.   From L-R; A. Mooradian, C. Smith, D. Stewart, J. Holland, B. McDonald, unidentified (standing),  D. Breckon.

A 27 cm by 35 cm photograph of the Nuclear Physics Branch  staff at Chalk River in 1950.  The Branch Head was B. W. (Bernie) Sargent, who had worked on the experimental  uranium-graphite assembly at NRC Ottawa with G. Laurence.  Sargent later left Chalk River for Queen’s University.

A 26 cm by 40 cm, black and white, aerial photograph of Deep River taken in 1950.  This vintage photograph shows the early stages of development of the town.  A copy of it is reproduced in “Memories of the Staff Hotel” (Printed 2008).  It is stated there that the date of the photo is 1951.  However, both that publication and several others state that the “Annex”, which was later named Maple Lodge, was built in 1951. 

A 30 cm by 38 cm, framed, photograph of the AECL Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee taken at Chalk River May, 1989.  The colour photograph shows (and names) thirteen of the 16 members of the Committee.

Two, grey-covered, binders containing the printout of three computer codes (Kinesi, Check and Cyclos) developed to predict radionuclide migration into the environment from a subsurface disposal facility.  These compilations were presented to Roger Jarvis of Chalk River, who led the work on their development, by the people in his group on the occasion of his retirement in 1987.

A 28 cm, cubical, aluminum vacuum chamber developed to produce thin, accelerator-beam targets for nuclear physics experiments.   Beam targets of many different isotopes were normally produced by vacuum evaporation of the desired material (often only a few micrograms of a rare isotope) from a heated tungsten or graphite crucible on to ultra-thin sheets of VYNS (polyvinyl chloride-acetate copolymer).  This chamber, made from welded 1 cm thick plates, would be mounted on a high-vacuum pump.  The side facing the vacuum pump was fitted with two high-current feed-throughs which then heated, through resistive heating, the crucible to the required evaporation temperature. Two of the faces of the chamber were filled with manipulators that could position the targets within the chamber and two more were fitted with removable glass windows that would permit observation of the process and the correct positioning of the targets. One face of the chamber remained solid.  The windows usually required removal for cleaning between operations.

A framed (30 cm by 39 cm), bulletin from the Pakistani Post Office describing a postage stamp issued in 1972 in honour of the Karachi (KANUPP), CANDU-type reactor.  The power station, later known as KANUPP-1, was a 137 MWe unit that was connected to the Pakistani power grid in October 1973.  The reactor, whose design is similar to the Douglas Point reactor in Canada, was built by Canadian General Electric.  With Pakistan's refusal to becoming the party of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT), GE Canada halted the sales of  spare parts, natural uranium, heavy water, and technical support for the nuclear power plant in 1976.  Details of the stamp design and colours are described in the brochure.

A 32 cm by 22 cm, aluminum tray made to commemorate the achievement of a new monthly production record at the AECL-owned Port Hawksbury Heavy Water Plant (PHHWP) in Nova Scotia.  The tray is made of nominal 2 mm aluminum sheet and is engraved.  The PHHWP was a single-unit plant designed for an output of 400Mg/a.  Construction started in 1970 but a number of problems were encountered with its operation and only limited production was achieved until 1978.  Production for the year 1979 reached 282 Mg.  A monthly production peak was achieved in November, 1979.  The plant was shut down in March, 1985.

Sample of a 22 cm diameter ceramic plate issued to celebrate the establishing of a new Plant Safety Record at the AECL-owned Port Hawksbury Heavy Water Plant located in Nova Scotia, CA.  The record accident-free period was celebrated 30 March, 1986, and plates were issued to all employees.  A set of three was donated to the Society.

A 45 cm by 58 cm, colour, illustration showing the cross-sectional view of a MAPLE reactor.  Two of these reactors were built at Chalk River specifically for isotope production.  Problems both with the supply of enriched fuel from the USA and with the reactivity measured experimentally vs calculated led to concerns and resulted in the cancellation of the project after both reactor units were constructed.

Original, pencil, draftsman drawings (43 cm by 56 cm) of eight variants of the 19-element fuel bundles proposed for the Douglas Point Generating Station.   The first in the series is titled “Model C-19C17D-CGE Wire-Wrap Bundle (Douglas Point First Charge).  The next seven variations deal with various construction techniques (brazed vs welded) for sub-components such as the spacers and trefoils.

A framed, 20 cm by 25 cm, certificate indicating membership by Mike Milgram in the Canadian Nuclear Society. Annual renewal stickers were issued for the first three years. The annual stickers were superseded by a 10-year membership sticker.

Samples of red-coloured underclothing used in the Active Area of the Chalk River laboratories where radioactive contamination of clothing was a possibility.  Many workers in the Active Area at Chalk River performed tasks in areas where it was possible their clothing might come in contact with radioactivity.  To diminish the chances of personal clothing being contaminated, these employees entered a clean change room, removed all personal clothing and donned special AECL-issue clothing before their work shift.  At the ends of their shifts they returned to the change rooms, removed the possibly-contaminated clothing, deposited it in used-clothing bin and donned their personal clothes.  To avoid possible lapses in memory, the AECL clothing was issue in a vivid red colour which reduced errors greatly.  Lab coats or coveralls were used over these underclothes.  A special laundry service dedicated to the Active Area cleaned possibly-contaminated clothes between uses.

Three mementos donated by Doug Milton.  One is a 20 cm by 25 cm, colour, photo of Doug taken at the time of his retirement in 1990.  It is mounted on a 28 cm by 35 cm matt.  The second is an autographed (by the facility staff) 28 cm by 35 cm, colour, illustration of the TASCC facility taken just before it was decommissioned in 1997. The third is a negative used to produce a photo-metal clock face for a clock presented to a close co-worker of Doug’s, John Fraser, on his retirement from AECL in 1981.  John and Doug worked on many fission experiments that are featured on the clock face.  The clock face measured 25 cm by 29 cm and one aspect of the experiments or one set of data was used at each of the twelve, hourly, positions. These experiments surround a photo of the L2 gate position at NRX where the experiments took place.  A black-and-white print of the negative is also included.

A collection of ten, foam-board backed, black and white, 20cm by 25 cm, photographs dealing with various aspects of the early Security Group.  Most of the personnel are identified.

A 22 cm long, welded, stainless-steel dewar made in the Chalk River laboratories for the containment/transfer of liquid nitrogen.  The double walled vessel has a relatively small volume of less than 1 liter and would have been used to transport liquid nitrogen to cold traps on experimental beam lines at the accelerator facility.

A framed, 29 cm by 36 cm, colour photograph of the large (94) group of people involved with the design, purchasing, manufacture, assembly and testing of the superconducting cyclotron.  The group was gathered when assembly of the superconducting cyclotron at the TASCC facility in Bldg. 114 at Chalk River was declared complete in 1985.

Precisely-machined, stainless-steel gauges to allow confirmation of both the inner and outer diameters of the highly-enriched uranium (HEU) target rods used in the MAPLE reactor for molybdenum-99 production.  The 482 mm long rods each contained 18.5 g of uranium-235 oxide crush-compressed in a thin annulus between two concentric zircaloy tubes.  The tubes had an inside diameter of 13.2 mm and an outside diameter of 15.2 mm.  The gauges had  NO or NO GO indicators stamped on them to indicate acceptable or unacceptable tolerances in the target rod diametric dimensions.

An AECL “inventory” tag.  These four centimeter long, oval-shaped, aluminum  tags were attached to equipment, mostly furniture, to allow inventory checking and to track the location of the equipment throughout the Chalk River site.  The use of them was curtailed about 1965.

A coffee mug produced to commemorate the opening of the DUALSPEC neutron scattering spectrometer at the NRU reactor in Chalk River in January, 1991.  The large new spectrometer was a joint effort between AECL and a consortium of Canadian universities.

The certificate of the Honorary Doctor of Science degree awarded to W.B. Lewis by Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, on 21 May, 1960.  Also included with the certificate was a copy of the introduction of Dr. Lewis by the Vice-Principal of the Faculty of Applied Science to the Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s who then awarded the degree.

This compact, battery-free, high-range radiation monitor was developed for long-term maintenance-free operation in 1963 by a Chalk River technician, Walt Woytowich.  The monitor, which measures 5 cm by 7.5 cm by 12.5 cm (2” by 3” by 5”), is based on a compact (5 mm diameter by 25 mm long) Geiger tube and weighs only 650 g.  The Geiger tube operates at a voltage of 550 volts which is supplied by a capacitor that is charged via a hand-cranked generator.  One charging usually lasts 15-18 hours.

The monitor has a clip to allow it to be worn on a belt or clothing and has an output that can feed an earphone. The monitor was designed for Civil Defence applications at the time of the Cold War and has a range of up to 5 Roentgens/hour.  The meter also acts as a voltage indicator during charging.  This commercial model, named the Algonquin, came on the market in 1963.

A Sample Monitor used at the Saskatchewan Research Council SLOWPOKE reactor.  The monitor consists of a counting module and a Geiger Mueller tube mounted inside a heavy shield.  The module measures 25 cm in width, 19 cm in depth and 10 cm high at the rear.  It then tapers to 2.5 cm in height at the front.  The shielded detector assembly sits in a 25 cm long container with a 3 cm diameter hole through which the sample can be passed to be placed in front of the detector window.  A partially shielded section, about 10 cm in length, protrudes beyond the main shield block.  The unit was offered by the SLOWPOKE manufacturer, AECL Commercial Products Division, Kanata, ON, as optional equipment.

A set of five imitation uranium oxide pellets illustrative of the type used in producing fuel elements for CANDU reactors.  CANDU fuel bundles are made up of a number of fuel element, each of which contains a number of pellets.  The pellets are made by pressing uranium oxide powder into small cylindrical shapes, which, depending on the type of CANDU, measure 10-13 mm in length and 8 to 13.5 mm in diameter.  The pellets are then sintered at a high temperature (1600-1700 degrees C) where they acquire their strength and density.  Each pellet weighs only about 10 grams but can release as much energy as 17, 000 cubic meters of natural gas. These pellets are made of a plastic material and were used for demonstration purposes only.

A commemorative beverage mug presented to attendees at the IAEA-sponsored, International Symposium on Research Reactor Safety, Operations and Modifications, held at Chalk River, ON, October 23-27, 1989.

An Eberline Model RM-19 radiation monitor.  This model of monitor has been used in a wide range of industrial applications.  This particular unit was used with the SLOWPOKE reactor at the Saskatchewan Research Council.  The monitor is 23 cm wide, 15 high and 23 cm deep.  The PG-2 low-energy gamma detector consists of a thin (2 mm thick) NaI(Tl ) scintillation crystal 5 cm in diameter. The probe housing the detector is 20 cm long and 8 cm in diameter. It has a strong metal screen to protect the detector. The detector and probe were manufactured by the Eberline Instrument Company of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

A Model 5300 Series, alpha spectrometer that was used at the Saskatchewan Research Council SLOWPOKE reactor facility.  The spectrometer, which was made by The Nucleus Inc., stands 15 cm square and is 24 cm deep.  Combined with a small vacuum pump and a multichannel analyzer, the spectrometer could be used to determine alpha particle energies from samples to be analyzed and lead to identification of individual isotopes.  The sample was typically placed near the bottom of the small vacuum chamber, which has a rubber-edged door.  The detector, a silicon-diffused junction (absent in this unit), sat directly above the sample near the top of the chamber. It detected the alpha particles emitted by the sample.  An amplifier, housed in the unit, then suitably amplified the detector signal and prepared it for scaling and display by a normal multichannel analyzer.

A Model 1024D, Multichannel Analyzer (MCA) built by The Nucleus Inc. and used at the Saskatchewan Research Council SLOWPOKE reactor.  This MCA was built primarily for use with scintillation counters and has an output port at the rear that provides stable DC voltage in the 500-1500 volt range.  Spectral distributions of gamma rays could be generated and displayed, printed out and/or plotted with these units.  MCA units similar to this one began to make an appearance in the 1960s with one of the first ones, a 100 channel one, being developed at Chalk River.  By the late 1960s solid state detectors such as the lithium-drifted germanium (Ge(Li) ) detector became available and units with much higher capabilities (4096 channel and more) became common in research laboratories.  This unit, manufactured in 1979, was more of a work-horse unit for applied research facilities.  The unit was donated complete with the Operation Manual. It stands 46 cm wide, 16.5 cm high and 40.5 cm deep.

A framed, colour photograph of the Chalk River site taken at night.  The photograph, mounted in a 52 cm by 42 cm frame, was taken by Clifford (Cliff) C.  Baskin, a long-time employee at Chalk River and the winner of numerous photography awards.  A decal attached to the rear of the photograph indicates that this particular item had been entered in a photographic exhibit/competition in 1969. The bottom photo shows Cliff receiving an award for his work from then Canadian Governor General, Roland Michener.

The endplate for one of the 12 pin, target bundles for the MAPLE reactors.  The Maple reactors were low power reactors designed and built at Chalk River specifically for the production of radioisotopes.  Two units were built but problems encountered during commissioning led to the abandoning and mothballing of the reactors.  The endplate measures 6 cm in diameter.

An 8 mm long cut-off slice from a CANDU pressure tube.  The pressure tubes used on CANDUs after Douglas Point all have a nominal 103 mm I.D. and 4 mm wall thickness.  This particular end cut has an stamped inscription reading “W1105-135”, the meaning of which is unclear at the time of cataloguing. The material is Zr-2.5Nb.

An ice bucket and a set of six beverage glasses given as one of the gifts available to Discovery Award winners.  The Discovery Award was a method used by AECL to recognize outstanding effort by employees in a given year.  Award winners received a certificate, a plaque and their choice from an array of gifts.  The insulating ice bucket, emblazoned with the AECL “flying A” logo and the Discovery Award symbol stands 21 cm in height and is 20 cm in diameter.  The accompanying glasses are similarly decorated, both front and back.

A 14 cm high, glass, beverage mug given to people who had contributed to the successful 25 years of operation of the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor at Rolphton in 1987.  NPD was designed, built and operated as a combined effort by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Canadian General Electric and Ontario Hydro and all three organizations have their company names listed on the decal on the mug.

A model, made using a 3-D printer, of a radioactive waste transfer canister.  The 8.5 cm tall model, shown in three pieces, is approximately a 1/10 scale model of the actual stainless steel and lead canister used to transfer and place containers of radioactive materials from the hot cells at CRNL into the Waste Management Area tile holes. The base of the real canister is in fact welded to the walls but is shown here as a separate unit purely for demonstration purposes.  The top plug typically has a removable hook attached  to allow easy remote placement of a container in the canister. The slot seen in the base allows a keyed segment on the bottom of the waste container to lock the container into place. Four symmetrically-placed lifting lugs welded to the base are used for lifting and moving the canister.

A bead-based rosary with a 3 cm tall cross.  This was donated by the Port Hope Historic Wastes Office and is claimed to have come from the home of Marcel Pochon, which was located in Port Hope, ON.  Pochon was a chemist who worked under Madame Curie in the 1930s and who later took over leadership of the Port Hope facility that extracted radium from pitchblend.  No details are known as to whom the rosary belonged.

The control package for a general-purpose Eberline, Model PRM-4, pulse-rate radiation monitor.  The unit, which measures 21 cm long by 9 cm wide by 19 cm high, consists of a metal box, which houses the battery pack and the electronics package, and a meter and scale adjustments to indicate the count rates. A connection for external earphones is also supplied.  The unit could be used with either an internal Geiger-tube or  an external scintillation counter The units were manufactured by the Eberline Instrument Corporation in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the units were used by the Atomic Energy Control Board to investigate the contamination in tailings in the Port Hope, ON, area. 

A Victoreen, Model THYAC III (also denoted Model 430), radiation-monitor control unit.  The fiberglass container for the electronics and batteries measures 21 cm in length by 11 cm in width and 18 cm in height.  The unit could act both as a gamma counter with an internally-mounted Geiger-tube or as a beta or alpha counter with an externally-mounted, thin window, Geiger-tube or a scintillation detector. Switches on the control unit face allowed both range changes and a choice of Geiger-tube mode (gm) or scintillation-counter mode (scint).  This unit was manufactured by the Victoreen  Company and was used by the Atomic Energy Control Board to investigate the contamination in tailings in the Port Hope, ON, area. 

An Eberline, Model PAC-1SAGA, battery-operated, portable alpha-radiation-monitoring control unit. The unit, which measures 21 cm long by 9 cm wide by 19 cm high, consists of a metal box, which houses the battery pack and the electronics package, a meter and scale adjustments to indicate the count rates. A connection for external earphones is also supplied. Although labeled as an alpha detector, this counter unit could be operated for gamma-ray detection with an internal Geiger-tube or for alpha detection with an external, Type AC-3, scintillation detector, which could be connected through the high-voltage connector port. These units were manufactured by the Eberline Instrument Corporation in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the were used by the Atomic Energy Control Board to investigate the contamination in tailings in the Port Hope, ON, area. 

The control package for an Eberline, Model PAC-4S, alpha-radiation monitor. The unit, which measures 21 cm long by 9 cm wide by 19 cm high, consists of a metal box, which houses the battery pack and the electronics package, a meter and scale adjustments to indicate the count rates. A connection for external earphones is also supplied. The missing scintillation detector and photomultiplier tube used for detecting the radiation would attach to the front of the unit via a high-voltage cable. The units were manufactured by the Eberline Instrument Corporation in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the units were used by the Atomic Energy Control Board to investigate the contamination in tailings in the Port Hope, ON, area.

A bronze model of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station mounted on a 37 cm by 18 cm wooden base. The model, which depicts all of the main features of the large eight-unit station, was used as a retirement gift. The dedication plaque reads “Emerson Schilkie, PNGS 1993”.

A 39 cm long, metal construction spelling out the letters NRX (National Reactor Experimental) made of nominal 6mm thick by 40 cm wide steel letters welded together. It is not known where the original “home” of this artifact was. It was left overnight in a bag hung on the doorknob of the Society Museum door.

In 1986 the US space program suffered a severe setback with the tragic explosion during the launch of the Challenger space shuttle.  The cause of the explosion was traced to leakage of rocket-fuel vapour precipitated by a defect in an O-ring used in the booster rockets.  AECL was one of several organizations contracted by Morton Thiokol, the prime contractor for the booster rockets, to assist with the development of improved O-rings.  The project was successful and many additional accident-free launches of the shuttle were subsequently achieved. 

Northrop Grumman, the project managers for the entire space shuttle program, donated one of the redesigned O-rings to the Society in 2020.  The specially-formulated rubber O-rings, which sit captive in grooves around the 3.8 m diameter rocker boosters, measure 11.9 m in total circumference.  The circular cross-section of the rings is just under 8 mm in diameter.

Test pieces used in the development of CANLUB fuel.  During the irradiation of UO₂ fuel in a nuclear reactor, the ceramic-like fuel pellets tend to crack and swell.  This swelling leads to expansion and increased stress and strain on the zirconium fuel sheet.  The increased strain can lead to failure of the sheath.  Decreasing the friction between the fuel pellets and the sheath at the crack area, in particular, can reduce the problems.  CANLUB uses a layer of graphite on the inside of the sheath to reduce this friction.

These test pieces of fuel sheath, some of which were irradiated to simulate reactor usage, were used in the experiments.  A ceramic ring was used to simulate the fuel while an aluminum core, which could be externally compressed with a mechanical plunger, simulated the forces produced in the fuel during irradiation.  Some of the samples were compressed to test the bursting limits.  The tests, carried out at Chalk River in 1973, showed that the graphite coating substantially reduced the friction and resultant stress on the sheath and CANLUB fuel, which uses the coating, is now in use in many CANDU power stations.

Three generations of portable data-storage media.  The 5 ¼ inch floppy was introduced about 1975.  It started with a capacity of 170 KB but improvements in media pushed the technology to ~1 MB.  The next generation of “floppies” was the 3 ½ inch version which was introduced in the early 1980s.  These discs had a capacity of 1.4 MB.  The 1990s saw the introduction of optically-read media also known as Digital Video Discs (DVDs), as opposed to the earlier magnetically-based media.  The capacity of these robust discs increased the storage capacity by three orders of magnitude.  Many of the standard DVDs had a capacity of 4-5 GB.

A 50 cm³, lithium-drifted, germanium detector with its aluminum mounting assembly.  To decrease detector noise, these high-resolution gamma ray detectors were normally kept at liquid-nitrogen temperature during operation.  The four cm long crystal is four cm in diameter.  The detector was used in the Analytical Science Branch (ASB) at the Whiteshell Laboratories for measurements to support nuclear waste-management research and other research activities. It resided in the ASB’s Counting Lab in a heavily shielded (Pb lined with Cu plate) “cave” where it measured the gamma spectra of samples arriving from tracer studies or after neutron activation. Several of these caves were fitted with automated sample changers to allow high-throughput analysis day and night. It, or a sibling, was used in the counting lab for the analysis of debris from Cosmos 954 in 1978.

Two slightly-different, vintage, 1:20 scale models of the large (~3 m wide by 6 m tall) mechanical presses used in the Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Branch at Chalk River.  The presses, originally manufactured by the Hepburn Engineering Company in Toronto in the 1960s, were extrusion presses made to fabricate the fuel rods used in the National Reactor Universal (NRU) reactor.  The two working models, which stand 40 cm in height, were made as retirement gifts designed for use in the compression rather than extrusion mode (as nutcrackers). 

The 1992 model, presented to Peter Purvis on his retirement, used mild steel bolts and shows signs of rust while the 1993 version has stainless steel bolts and stands on a wooden base.  The plaque for Peter reads ”Peter Purvis, 1957-1992, In Appreciation from NFFF” while the plaque on the unit presented to Ross reads “ ROSS – THANKS FROM THE GANG AT  NFFF, 1989-1993”.

Two types of capsules used in neutron activation analysis (NAA) systems with the WR-1 reactor at the Whiteshell Nuclear Research Establishment. The metal one, which is 38 mm long by 14 mm in diameter with a 10 mm central bore, is called the Iron Rabblt — it is made of very pure iron, to minimize its radioactivity after irradiation. The Iron Rabbit NAA facility delivered the irradiated capsules to either the Hot Cells or to a shielded receiver in an active lab, a few hundred metres away from WR-1. There the capsule had to be opened manually and the sample transferred manually to a measurement station. Capsules were expensive and not usually re-useable.

A new facility, designated the “Super-Rabbit”, used plastic capsules made of very pure polyethylene. The gamma activity of the samples could be measured without removing the samples from the capsules. The polyethylene cover was thermally welded to the container before usage and trimmed to size.  Various-sized smaller capsules, also made of polyethylene, were used to contain the samples in both types of carriers.

A Tee shirt given to participants of Operation Morning Light, a large, multi-organization, Canadian-American, operation in January 1978 to locate, identify and collect the debris of Cosmos 954, a Russian satellite whose launch was only partially successful.  The satellite, which was powered by a small nuclear reactor, re-entered the atmosphere over northern Canada and spread radioactive debris over a huge part of the North West territories.  Bill Taylor of Chalk River was requisitioned by the Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) to assist with the safe packaging and shipment of the radioactive materials recovered for transfer to the Whiteshell laboratories for analysis.  The Tee shirt was sent to Bill by the Department of National Defence, the lead agency for Operation Morning Light.

A framed certificate from The Chemical Institute of Canada certifying the election of I.H. Crocker as a Fellow of the Institute.   Iain was a long-time chemist at the Chalk River Laboratories.  The framed certificate, which measures 22 cm by 28 cm, is dated “The third day of June, 1985” and bears the gold seal of the Institute. 

Framed Membership Certificate recognizing the registration of Iain Crocker, a long-time AECL employee, in the Association of the Chemical Profession of Ontario.  The framed certificate which measures 25 cm by 29 cm is undated.

A photo-etched plaque mounted on an 18 cm by 33 cm wooden base awarded to Mr. I.W. (Iain) Crocker to honour his 35 years of continuous service with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. The plaque, signed by the President of AECL, James Donnelly, is dated the 6^th of May, 1988.  The award, featuring the maple leaf and “Flying A” symbol of AECL at the top also features symbols representing AECL Research Company, AECL CANDU, AECL Heavy Water and AECL Commercial Products.

A retirement memento given to Bill Taylor on his retirement from Chalk River Laboratories in 1991.  One of the major programs Bill worked on during his long career was the design, development, testing and qualification of numerous containers used for the transport of radioactive materials.  Included in this effort was the development of a facility at Chalk River for drop and fire-testing of these containers to confirm that they met international standards.  The gift consists of a 10 cm long “barrel” dropped onto a 14 cm square wooden base. (In real life the base the barrel was dropped on to was a thick steel plate.) The checkered background is a replica of the grid painted on the background of the Drop Facility to aid measurements.  The plaque reads “Bill Taylor; July 4^th, 1961 – September 27^th 1991”.  The bottom of the wooden base exhibits the signatures of 25 of Bill’s work colleagues -mostly from the Plant Design Division where Bill worked.

A 50 cm long, CANFLEX, advanced-fuel, bundle mounted on a plastic stand.  The 43-element, fuel bundle has been designed to obtain maximum fuel burnup in Advanced CANDU Reactors (ACRs) while also reducing the peak-power rating.  It is the first fuel design in the CANDU fuel series to use two different-sized elements.  The central eight elements have a diameter of 13.5 mm while the thirty-five outer elements are 11.5 mm in diameter.  CANFLEX fuel also features CANLUB, a thin graphite coating on the inside of the fuel sheath that is used to reduce stresses on the element sheath if/when cracks develop in the ceramic fuel pellets. 

A display box depicting the production of a CANDU fuel bundle. Uranium ore is processed to form a complex powder known as yellow cake, or urania.  This material is in then chemically processed to produce UO₂.  The UO₂ powder is pressed, heated and finely milled to produce ceramic-like pellets. The pellets, which are 12 mm in diameter and 20 mm in length, are then encased in zirconium alloy fuel rods that have a length of just under 500 mm.  The rods have end-caps welded on and are then assembled into a CANDU fuel bundle.  There are variations in the sizes of the fuel rods depending on the specific model of CANDU reactor and variations in the number of elements required for a fuel bundle. 

The first power-generating Canadian reactor, Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD), at Rolphton, ON, used both 7-element and 19-element bundles, while the 37-element bundle depicted in the display is the fuel type used at the Bruce Generating Station at Kincardine, ON.  The display stands 32 cm tall and is mounted on a 63 cm by 20 cm wooden base.

The remnants of a roll of the famous Chalk River “yellow” duct tape.  This tape, which was generally recognized as the “best duct tape ever,” was used widely on the site.  The 5 cm wide tape had a wide variety of uses. In particular, it was used in the active area for taping over the cuffs of clothing to decrease the possibility of loose clothing coming into contact with radioactive material.  The yellow colour was chosen to make it distinctive and less susceptible to “accidentally” leaving the laboratories and being used in private homes.  Nevertheless, it often appeared at winter events held in Ottawa Valley arenas where it was reported to be excellent for usage with hockey gear. 

A wooden-handled, beer mug made from a cut-off from tubing fabricated to make the pressure tubes used in the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor.  The mug stands 15 cm tall and the outer diameter of the pressure-tube section is 9.0 cm.  A 4 cm tall, “flying A” Atomic Energy of Canada Limited logo, is engraved on the surface.  End cut-offs were retained after construction for quality control tests and were later used to generate retirement gifts etc. for AECL and Ontario Hydro employees who had worked on experiments at NPD.

A souvenir generated to commemorate the official opening of the Algom Uranium Mine near Blind River on 16 February, 1957.  The artifact, which measures 15 cm by 10 cm by 1 cm, displays samples of raw uranium ore and two samples of concentrate, one a 170-times concentrate while the other is an 800-times concentrate.  All the materials are encased in thick acrylic and no radiation above background can be measured.  The artifact had been residing in the vault of the main offices of the Bank of Montreal (BMO) in Montreal and was subsequently donated to the Society by BMO.

A roll of semi-translucent packing tape printed for and used at the AECL laboratories at Whiteshell, MB.  The tape, which used the “AECL Blue” colour for the lettering, is 5 cm wide and has a repeating pattern every 21 cm.

A framed, colour photograph taken outdoors at the Byeways Hotel near Deep River in September 1946.  The important occasion being celebrated was the “Transfer of Leadership” from John Cockcroft, who was returning to the United Kingdom, to W.B. Lewis, the new Site Head.  The metal-framed assembly measures 25 cm by 31 cm.

A framed, black and white, 20cm by 30 cm, photograph of the attendees at a dinner to honour the first cohort of AECL/NRC employees who had achieved 25 years of service with the organization.  The reverse of the photograph lists the date and location as 20 March 1970 at the Skyline Hotel in Ottawa. 

The attached information panel reads. ”Dr. D.G. Hurst, G.R. Matteau and D.J. Robertson attended a dinner in Ottawa, March 20, to mark 25 years of service with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited or its predecessors in the Canadian atomic energy program.  For Dr. Hurst it was also a leave-taking as he left the company to head the Atomic Energy Control Board”.  The attendees (L-R) were:  S. E. Lipin, C.C. Kennedy, D.J. Robertson, D. Watson, J.L. Gray, D.G. Hurst, G.R. Matteau, W.B. Lewis.

 A 20 cm long, traditional "Russian” spoon.  These are typically used by Russians as "thank-you" gifts to hosts and friends.  This particular spoon was given to Miss Olive Phillips of Renfrew, ON, as a gift from Professor Peter Kapitza, Director of the Institute For Physical Problems, Moscow, Russia.    Miss Phillips had met the Kapitza family while on a holiday in Hungary in 1961.  Professor Kapitza, the 1978 Nobel prize laureate in Physics for his work on materials at cryogenic temperatures, had been a researcher at Cambridge during the period that both Sir John Cockcroft and W.B. Lewis were carrying out research there and was very happy to make contact with someone who lived near "Lewis’s Labs”.  Professor Kapitza and his wife were hosted by Dr. Lewis at Chalk River during a visit in 1969.

A 16 cm by 10 cm, hard-covered, field notebook.  This “pocket-sized”, ~ 1 cm thick, notebook contains untitled, lined pages and was typically used by employees for taking notes around the Chalk River site.  There is no indication of a date of manufacture but the words “Chalk River Project” on the reverse mailing address and the lack of a postal code would indicate it was probably 1960s vintage. (Postal codes came into usage in Canada in 1971.)

An aluminum capsule for long-term irradiations in the Hydraulic Capsule Facility (HCF) at the National Reactor Universal (NRU) at Chalk River.  The capsule, which would contain the sample to be irradiated, is sealed by cold-welding a flat aluminum disk to it before irradiation.  When completed, it measured approximately 70 mm in length, with a maximum outer diameter of approximately 35 mm.  A wide variety of materials were  irradiated in similar capsules for extended periods during NRU’s lifetime.  The neutron flux available at NRU was typically 2.4 x 10¹⁴ neutrons/ cm². 

Between 2010 and NRU’s permanent shutdown in 2018, materials of commercial interest were irradiated in the HCF at NRU to confirm calculations and establish techniques for irradiations at Ontario Hydro facilities such as the Darlington Generating Station.  These included the irradiation of microspheres of neptunium oxide for the production of Pu238 – an isotope highly valued in the space industry for use in Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTG) used in deep space probes.

A thin, clear-acrylic disc issued by the Canadian Nuclear Society in 2012 to celebrate “50 Years of Nuclear Electricity in Canada.”  The first nuclear-generated electricity was generated by the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor at Rolphton, ON, in 1962.  The disc measures 10 cm in diameter.

An outline image of the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) generating station presented to Phil Simpson for his 15 years of service.  The engraved plastic sheet is mounted on a 10 cm by 25 cm wooden base and stands 15 cm tall overall.

Building 440 at Chalk River was the building where raw cooling water from the Ottawa River was pumped to and where particulates were allowed to settle before the water was pumped to the NRU and NRX reactors.  Two large drawings, each 72 cm by 112 cm, both framed on a plywood backing and covered with 4mm thick sheets of plastic were mounted inside the building.  These were retrieved during decommissioning and donated to the Society.  For storage reasons the drawings were removed from the frames in May 2020.

A collection of eighteen, single and composite photographs, some taken in the 1960s, of various pieces of neutron-scattering spectrometers during manufacture and assembly.  These were all framed and displayed in various offices as well as with the spectrometers in NRX and later NRU.  They were rescued after the shutdown of neutron-spectroscopy research, which came about with the permanent shut-down of NRU, and were donated to the Society.   All the photos were matted and framed in non-standard sized frames.  They were removed from the frames in 2020.  

Coffee mugs celebrating the 20^th annual Science for Education Seminars.  The seminars, which presented many of AECL’s research programs to  high-school teachers from a wide geographic region, were held annually at Chalk River starting in 1976.  Two versions of the mugs were produced, one of which bore the additional logo for the AECL Waste Management Program, and one without the logo.

A matted and framed photograph of the isotope-separation towers of the Port Hawkesbury Heavy Water Plant (PHHWP).  The Port Hawkesbury plant was built by Lummus Company of Canada Limited under contract to Canadian General Electric Company.  Production of heavy water began in 1970 but the plant encountered numerous technical problems and was sold to AECL in 1975.  Intermittent production continued until the plant was shut down and dismantled in 1985.  The framed photograph, which measures 41 cm by 51 cm, was taken about 1980.

This engineering-design drawing, Number 551C877, was produced at the Civilian Atomic Power Division (CAPD) of Canadian General Electric plant in Peterborough, Ontario, as the design document for the 19-element fuel bundles that were used at the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor at Rolphton.  The draftsman was G. Andrew and the design engineer was Les Haywood, who later played important roles in various generating station and heavy water projects within AECL.  The original drawing was made in September 1959 and a total of twelve revisions are recorded, the last being on 28 June 1961.

A Cloudmaster, “public demonstration”, cloud chamber manufactured by Nuclear Chicago.  The chamber has a 14 cm diameter by 10 cm tall plexiglass chamber in which samples of radioactive ore or a similar nuclear radiation source can be placed.  An alcohol-soaked felt pad at the top of the chamber generates an atmosphere of alcohol vapour.  Dry ice placed at the base of the chamber cools the vapour in that area to below its saturation point and particle tracks are triggered by radiation emitted from the source.  The Cloudmaster kit also has a light, mounted on a 10.5 cm cubical metal box, that assists illumination of the tracks.  The box houses a power supply for the light as well as a 600 V power supply that can be used to remove charges and allow rapid, repeated viewings of the tracks.  The chamber, mounted on an aluminum support stand, stands 23 cm tall.

The artifact consists of a 28 cm by 21 cm by 16 cm, lockable, case housing a set of ten, Dosimeter Corporation, pocket, quartz-fibre, ionization-chamber dosimeters and a unit for re-charging the dosimeters.   The direct-reading ionization-chamber, Model 611, dosimeters, with a relatively high exposure range (0-5 R), have been extensively used by the nuclear industry for many years.  The 12 cm-long dosimeters are charged to the appropriate voltage, and the degree of discharge during deployment gives a direct reading of the radiation dose accumulated.  Re-charging is accomplished by mounting the dosimeter on a charging unit.  The charging unit in this case is a Model 909 unit, also supplied by Dosimeter Corporation.  This kit was kept and maintained at Chalk River.  The last calibration date shown is in 2012. 

An ALNOR, Model RAR-101R, alarming, personnel dosimeter.  The dosimeter, which is 6.5 cm wide by 11.5 cm long by 2 cm thick, can be used to measure both total dose and dose rate.  The range for dose is 0-1000 R while the dose rate range is 0-300 R/h.  The unit, which has an adjustable alarm setting, was manufactured in Finland by the Rados Corporation and was used at the Chalk River site for radiation dose control.

Two similarly-constructed, compact, pancake, Geiger-tubes.  The thin entrance windows (typically mica) have been damaged and then removed to show the details of the design and construction of the high-voltage electrode in the counters.  Both counters are based on a 5-cm-diameter case whose walls are 1.5 cm in height.  Both Canberra-Dover and APTEC-NRC were suppliers of radiation monitoring equipment during the 1970-1990 period.

A Scintrex-manufactured Model 409M beta survey meter.  The monitor, which stands 20 cm in height and 18 cm in length, has a built-in stand that serves to shield the user's hand from the beta fields being measured.  The window at the end, which is protected with a removable cover, is 2 cm in diameter.  Technical information on the instrument has been difficult to source, but the detectors have been identified to be silicon diodes.  The instrument has two selectable ranges.  The low range is from 0 to 2 Gy/h (200 rads/h or 200 "rem/h").  The high range extends this to 20 Gy/h (2000 rads/h or 2000 "rem/h").  Scintrex, a small company in Concord Ontario, were a supplier of  a number of models of radiation monitoring equipment.

An Eberline, Model HP 260, “pancake” probe.  The probe, which is 25 cm in length, is believed to be a copy of the Ludlum, Model 44-9, alpha, beta and gamma probe (Artifact 2020-024).  The Model HP-260 is a sensitive beta detector, featuring a "pancake" GM tube with a thin mica window.

The open window, which is protected by an etched stainless steel screen, permits useful beta sensitivities down to 40 keV. The detector is alpha sensitive above 3 MeV. The thin detector has a 1.4-2.0 mg per square cm thick mica window and is protected by the screen, which is 79 percent open. Mica windows must be used instead of Mylar because Mylar will react with the halogen quench gas. The Geiger-Mueller-based probe has an active window diameter of 5 cm. of 5 The Eberline Company, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, produces and services a wide range of radiation detection equipment . 

A Ludlum, Model 44-9, radiation detector that can be used to detect alpha, beta and gamma radiation.  The detector, which has an overall length of 27 cm, can be used with a wide range of counters and has an operating voltage of 900 V.  The mica window of the halogen-quenched, Geiger-Mueller tube has an active area of 15.5 square centimetres.  This instrument was used by the Radiation and Industrial Safety (RIS) group at Chalk River, and is still widely used today.

The AEP 2153 is a multi-purpose survey meter used for measuring gamma radiation fields. The meter measures 20 cm in length and is 23 cm tall.  The probe assembly is 17 cm long and has a 3 cm diameter active area.  The detector has two halogen-quenched Geiger tubes - one for the 0-100 mR/h range, the other for the 0-10 R/h range.  Low-range is the default, and the high range is activated by the user pulling the trigger on the handle.  A movable shield covers the low-range Geiger tube and when swung out of the way allows the entry of beta radiation. This instrument was used at Chalk River.

An AEP 5210 beta dosimeter.  The dosimeter stands 23 cm tall and is 20 cm in overall length.  The dosimeter was designed by AECL and a sticker on the side indicates this unit was manufactured by Canadian Admiral Corporation Ltd.  The scale indicates beta dose rates of 0-100 rad/h on a logarithmic scale.  The probe has a 3 cm diameter and is 14 cm in length.  A plastic cover protects the detection end of the probe which has a central exposed diameter of ~2.5 mm.  The detector is a silicon p-n junction, reverse-biased diode.  Readings are normally taken both with and without the cover to determine the gamma ray component of the radiation. The history of this artifact is unknown.  A sticker on the side of it indicates it was used at “AECL -Toronto”.  A calibration sticker indicates it was in use as late as 1992.

A Geiger-tube based, low range, Model CCD-100-10 Survey meter.  The meter, which measures 24 cm in length by 11.5 cm in width by 11 cm in height, was manufactured by Canadian Admiral Corporation Ltd. for use by Emergency Measures Organizations.  It has a low range of 1-100 mR/h and a high range of 0-10R/h.  This particular unit was used at the Chalk River Laboratories for training purposes.

The Scintrex 209L Tritium-In-Air monitor was developed at Chalk River and then packaged and sold commercially by Scintrex.  Two ionization chambers along with the associated electronics are housed in the 20 cm long by 13 cm wide by 10 cm high metal box.  Both ionization chambers have a volume of 80 cubic centimetres.  Both are sensitive to gamma rays, the closed chamber being used to compensate for the gamma-ray background.  The meter has an operating range from 10 microcuries of tritium per cubic metre to 20 000 microcuries per cubic metre. 

An AECL-designed, extendable-probe gamma survey meter.  The meter is intended for very high radiation fields of up to 10 kilorads per hour (about 100 sieverts/h).  The meter, with a closed probe length of 75 cm, can be extended to a probe length of 162 cm.  It is provided with two scales; 0-3 and 0-10 kilorads/h.  The detector(s) on the end of the probe is/are 2.5 cm in length and 1.5 cm in diameter.  The window at the end of the counter has an aperture of 5 mm.  No detailed information has been located on the detector(s) used in this monitor. The meter is believed to have been designed at Chalk River and built to AECL specifications by Canadian Admiral Corporation Ltd.  Later similar commercial versions, purchased from Germany, replaced this unit.

An AECL-designed, AEP2140 beta/gamma survey meter.  The meter has a built-in front support to make it free-standing and measures 36 cm overall in length.  The 3.5 cm diameter probe extends 14 cm beyond the main body of the instrument and has a removable cap to both protect the window and to allow discrimination between beta and gamma radiation.  No detailed information has been located on the detector(s) used in this monitor.  The full-scale reading has three ranges – 25 mR/h, 250 mR/h, and 2.5 R/h.  There is also a logarithmic scale position for the switch.  These meters were widely used at Chalk River during the 1960-1970 era.

A Model PDR1 Portable Dose Ratemeter manufactured by Nuclear Enterprises (NE).  NE were a subsidiary of the EMI (UK) music company and had a radiation-detectors factory in Edinburgh Scotland in the mid 1960s.  This low-level detector, which measured gamma dose rates up to 10 mR/h, was used at CRNL.  The meter is 11 cm wide by 24 cm in length and stands 10 cm in height.  It was used by the Radiation Protection Branch at CRNL.

A Geiger-tube based, gamma radiation monitor developed to allow radiation dose measurements at a distance.  The unit, which is stored in a wooden box (16 cm wide by 11 cm high by 76 cm long), has a 49 cm long probe and an 18 cm extender.  Extension units available from the supplier, AUTOMESS (Automation und Messtechnik GmbH, Landenburg, Germany),  allow the meter to work at a distance of up to 4 m from the radiation source.  The instrument has a very wide dose-rate range of  0.1 mR/h  to 1000 R/h (about 1 microsievert/h to 10 sieverts/h).  It can be used to measure both total dose and dose rate. It was used by the CRNL Radiation Protection Branch at CRNL.

A cutaway model of the Nuclear Reactor Xperimental (NRX) reactor, which came into operation at CRNL in 1947.  The model, which stands on 20 cm tall legs, has an overall height of 72 cm.  The base of the model measures 60 cm in length and 30 cm in width.  The length of the acrylic “calandria” is 15 cm which, when compared to the actual calandria height of 3 m, sets the scale of the model at 1:20. The model had been used for many years in the Radiation Protection Branch to illustrate the functions of NRX.

A coffee mug awarded in 2012 to AECL Protective Services Branch personnel at Chalk River who had participated in their bi-annual training sessions.  One side displays the Protective Services crest while the other bears the symbol with their motto “F o F” (Force of Force) regarding their response to a disruptive force approaching the AECL site.

Two, large, identical, specifications plates for the alternating current generators from the Douglas Point Generating Station.  The plates, approximately 1 cm in thickness and measuring 61 cm by 71 cm, are mounted on heavy oak panels.  The finished product measures 71 cm by 81 cm.  Douglas Point G.S., located in Huron County in Ontario, was the first large CANDU station and succeeded the Nuclear Demonstration Plant (NPD) at Rolphton.  It had an electrical output of 220 MW. The generator was built by Canadian General Electric Company to the design of Associated Electrical Industries of Manchester, U.K.

A 20 cm by 25 cm, hardboard-backed, photo plaque produced by the Canadian Neutron Beam Center to celebrate the life of researcher Lachlan Cranswick who wandered onto the ice of the Ottawa River near Deep River and tragically drowned in 2010.  Lachlan was celebrated as an outstanding researcher in the field of neutron diffraction and crystallography.

Prior to the introduction of desk-top personal computers (PCs) most calculations were done on a central “mainframe” computer with input via punch-cards.  Computer codes as well as output files were then printed at the central mainframe and distributed to users.  This typical collection of several hundred pages of code, bound in a 30cm by 40 cm binder, was the norm at AECL until about 1990.

Starting in 1945, employees located in Deep River, Chalk River or Pembroke travelled to CRNL on NRC (later AECL) owned and operated buses.  Initially this was true for all employees but as automobiles became more readily available and security measures eased, some employees formed car pools and drove to work.  Those who continued to bus would be required to purchase bus tickets that were “punched” by the drivers as they boarded the buses.  Three, punch-type, examples are shown here. 

One, dated 1973, is a 36-trip Deep River, another is 30-trip Pembroke one and a third,  undated one, is a six-trip ticket usually purchased by someone who regularly drove in to work but needed the occasional ride.  A Deep River passenger wanting a ride to or from Pembroke would have two punches taken on his ticket.  Note the variation in “punch” shape corresponding to different bus drivers. By the 1990s many more employees were using private vehicles and bus usage was decreasing.  To cover the costs associated with operating a bus service AECL introduced an opt-out program.  Those employees wishing to continue to use the buses needed to commit to the service and were issued photo-identification bus passes, the cost of which was automatically deducted “at source”.

This medal, four centimeters in diameter, was awarded to Albert Pearson by Queens University, Kingston, for recognition as the top graduating student in Physics in the class of 1949.  Albert later enjoyed an illustrious career at CRNL and in 1983 was awarded the WB Lewis medal by the Canadian Nuclear Association in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the CANDU program in particular in the area of computer control.

The WB Lewis award is awarded annually by the Canadian Nuclear Society “To recognize a Canadian scientist or engineer who has demonstrated a level of technical competence and accomplishment in the field of nuclear science and engineering as exemplified by the late Dr. W.B. Lewis during his involvement in the Canadian nuclear energy programme, 1946 to 1973.”  The ten-sided, bronze medal, 9 cm in diameter, was awarded to Albert Pearson in 1983.  It was presented in a 13 cm by 8 cm by 6.5 cm high black-walnut box.

An engraved, glass-bottomed, pewter mug presented to Al Pearson on his retirement in 1980 after 28 years of service with AECL.  The dedication, with the AECL “Flying A”, reads "C.R.N.L.; A. Pearson; 1952-1980”.  The mug features the engraved signatures of 64 work colleagues two of which appear twice.

The ZEEP (Zero Energy Experimental Pile) reactor was the first reactor outside of the USA to go critical. This event occurred at Chalk River on 05 September 1945.  The reactor vessel was surrounded by various-sized blocks of reactor-grade graphite which acted as a neutron reflector.  Three of the blocks have been donated as artifacts to the Society.  They have a square cross-section 19 cm on a side (nominal 7.5”) and are 76 cm (nominal 30”) long.  Nuclear graphite is defined as having a “density of at least 1.5 g/cubic centimeter” hence the blocks weigh approximately 41 kg.

The last dosimeter badge used by Dr. W.B. Lewis - Employee Number 11, at Chalk River.  During his lifetime Dr. Lewis would have been issued with a series of badges that began with a film dosimeter and evolved to the TLD (thermoluminescent dosimeter) model.  This was the badge he wore at the time of his retirement in 1973.

A "commemorative" weld plate, of which about 20 were made after the NRU vessel repair-work was completed in 2010. The artifact consists of a flat aluminum plate, approximately 26 cm square, that was machined on the back side to replicate the NRU calandria-wall thickness adjacent to position J-Rod -41. This position is the location of the critical through-wall leak that created a major interruption in isotope production schedule. A small hole on the back side, to the right of the larger circular hole, simulates the leak position. A 4 cm diameter, circular hole, was remotely cut from the vessel at this location to obtain a specimen for corrosion and surface science examination, as well as to conduct welding trials.  The final repair at this location involved tack-welding a plate inside the vessel to cover both the circular hole and the corrosion hole.  The plate was then perimeter welded and finally covered with rows of weld buildup to seal the site. 

This particular commemorative plate was awarded to Bill Shorter, who played a key role in the repair project.  It reads “NRU Reactor Vessel Repair, J-Rod-41 Position, NRU return to Service, 2010 August.”

Two, ~6 cm square, replacement meters for radiation survey instruments.  One of the meters serves as a dual-function meter.  It can indicate the count rate over a 0-200 k counts per minute (CPM) range as well as the instrument voltage range from 0-2.5 kV while the other is a one-range meter scaled for the 0-10k MR/H range.  Both the meters are manufactured by Tracerlab.

A 20 cm diameter, brass ashtray commemorating the first operation of Wolsung-1, the first CANDU in operation in Korea.  The center boss of the ashtray features the AECL “flying A” while the outer rim has the expressions “Atomic Energy of Canada Limited”, “Wolsung-1 Nuclear Power Plant” and “Korea Electric Company” in both English and Korean.

A 35 cm diameter, wooden (maple?) plaque with a cast-bronze maple leaf and a model of the Douglas Point CANDU reactor. The wooden plaque is made up of four glued quadrants.  The origin of the design and the occasion for which it was produced is unknown.  It existed at CRNL and had been long admired by Ken McDonald.  As a result, it was put to use as a retirement gift for Ken.  A small plaque reading “Ken McDonald, AECL 1971-1997” was added in 1997 for the presentation to Ken.

 A leather-strapped men’s wristwatch featuring the AECL flying A symbol.  Watches of a number of designs were used by AECL both as retirement gifts and to recognize long service with the company.

A leather-strapped men’s wristwatch featuring the AECL flying A symbol.  Watches of a number of designs were used by AECL both as retirement gifts and to recognize long service with the company.

A set of standard, 6 cm by 10 cm, playing cards produced by the Nuclear Engineering International (NEI) publishing company in the United Kingdom to celebrate 50 years (1956-2006) of publishing on nuclear engineering topics.  The “deck” contains 44 cards with the faces of the first five explaining the rules of a games that can be played using the cards and the profiles of the sponsors for the card collection (AECL-CANDU, Curtis-Wright Flow Control Corporation, L-3 Communications MAPPS Inc. and NEI). The faces of the remaining 39 cards list the main characteristics of different nuclear generating stations around the world.  It is not known if the set of cards is complete or if, when originally produced, it consisted of 50 cards (for 50 years) or possibly 52 cards to mimic a normal deck of playing cards.

A wooden block (13 cm square by 3 cm high) made into a pen holder and featuring a computer memory disc with engraved signatures of co-workers.  This gift was presented to Barbara Stephens on her retirement from the Fuel Channel Thermohydraulics Branch. The engraved plaque reads “Barbara Stephens, FCT Branch, 1999 October-2000 July”.

 A battery-operated, quartz-movement clock given employees at CRNL to mark long-service anniversaries.  It was one of several items an employee could choose.  The clock stands 13.5 cm tall and measures 9 cm along the base.  The front features the AECL “flying A” logo.

A typical photo folder presented by CRNL to a retiring employee during the 1970-2000 era.  The folder contained a 20 cm by 25 cm, colour, aerial photo of the laboratories and the employee’s photo.  It was then sent to the Branch in which the employee worked and was circulated for signatures and best wishes from co-workers.  This particular artifact was one presented to Roger Jarvis on the occasion of his retirement from CRNL in 1989 after 32 years of service with AECL.

A set of three lapel pins awarded to employees in recognition of long service with AECL.  The two rectangular pins, which feature semi-precious stones in their setting, were part of a series awarded every five years, starting with 20 years of service.  At 30 years of service they featured a single small diamond; at 35 years the pin featured two diamonds and then, at 35 years of service, three diamonds.  The pins measured 10 mm by 13 mm and were introduced around 1990.  The third pin, awarded on retirement, was for 32 years of service. It was awarded to Roger Jarvis on his retirement in 1989.

A 1.6 m long section of paper tape of the type used for both input and output from many computers before the common use of “magnetic” tape and “magnetic” discs of various types became available.  Information for input was generated by a stand-alone, paper-punch unit to generate the holes in the tape, which was then read by an optical reader on the computer.  Computer output used a paper punch directly controlled by the computer. The early models of devices used six rows of punched holes allowing 2 to the sixth power (64) possible combinations of holes and hence 64 characters while the later versions were eight rows thereby increasing the available coded characters to increase to 256.  This eight-row tape measures 2.5 cm in width (nominal 1”) and would have been stored in rolls.  A second storage method was fanfold.  The smaller holes between the third and fourth tracks would fit on the geared drive on the reader/writers to maintain correct positioning. (The characters shown on this tape do not represent actual codes but were generated simply to produce a showy display.)

A Leeds & Northrup (LN) galvanometer.  This was a “second-generation” electrical-measurements instrument developed about 1950.  “First-generation” galvanometers used mechanical movements and mirrors to detect small deflections produced by currents in a magnet coil.  Unfortunately, the plate indicating a model number is missing.  Records from LN indicate that early models of this style of galvanometer were housed in wooden boxes while later models were manufactured with a more-compact Bakelite case.  This earlier-model unit is housed in a wooden box that measures 8.5 cm by 17 cm by 13.5 cm in height. The scale reads +/- 15 units.

A full-scale replica of one of the target assemblies intended for isotope production using the Multipurpose Applied Physics Lattice (MAPLE) reactors at Chalk River.  The actual targets, which would contain highly enriched uranium (HEU), consisted of a thin annulus of uranium dioxide cross-compressed between two concentric zircaloy tubes.  The nominal dimensions are 15.2 mm OD, 13.2 mm ID and 482.6 mm length.  The tubes have a number of dimples along their length to increase thermal heat transfer to the cooling water.  The artifact is packaged in a 16 mm ID plastic tube.

A set of six calculators or slide rules that were used to calculate various electrical and mechanical properties of equipment at a nuclear generating station.  These include: converting voltage signals from a variety of thermocouple junctions to temperature; motor capacity based on voltage, current and wire size; control-valve size requirements based on the characteristics of the fluid (water or steam) being controlled; and two slide rules for calculating electrical capacitance and resistance depending on environmental conditions and physical characteristics.  Five of the units are made of coated paper, while the Ohmite, Ohms Law/Resistance calculator, is made of a plastic material. The physical sizes of the calculators are: Leeds and Northrup thermocouple – 10 cm by 24 cm; West thermocouple -10 cm by 25 cm; Square D motor calculator -8.5 cm by 15.5 cm; BSR control valve – 8 cm by 21 cm;  Ohmite capacitance calculator – 7 cm by 18 cm; and  Ohmite Ohm’s Law – 7.5 cm by 23 cm.

A 6 cm acrylic cube with the “Flying A” AECL symbol laser-engraved into the center of it.  This was one of several items produced and awarded to employees in 2002 to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the formation of AECL.  The acrylic cube was packaged in a silk-lined cubical box which measures 9.5 cm on a side.

Two aluminum replicas of the fuel pins used in NRU reactor at CRNL for the production of molybdenum 99, a fission product from which technetium 99 is produced.  The latter is widely used in medical diagnostics.  The fuel pins are 19.6 cm long overall with the ribbed area being 16 cm in length.  The diameter of the ribbed section is 1.3 cm.  A split-diameter spacer ring that slides over the ends of the pins holds three vanes.  These vanes allow cooling water to flow past the pins during irradiation while keeping the pins centered inside a 2 cm diameter tube.

A 9 cm by 39 cm, paper-based, vehicle bumper sticker given out to visitors to the Public Information Center at CRNL. 

Two hand-painted signs believed to have been used on the original “employment office” used by the Fraser-Brace Company (F-B) in the village of Chalk River in 1944.  The building was originally a barber shop and was located at the junction of the Plant Road and Highway 17.  Next door to it was a garage, known as “Harper’s Garage” that was also taken over by F-B and Defense Industries Limited (DIL).  DIL, a Crown Corporation, were assigned the task of setting up the laboratories at Chalk River as well as the town of Deep River.  They subcontracted the actual construction to Fraser-Brace, a Montreal-based construction company.  The “employment office” was located a short distance from the Chalk River train yards and station where workers from Ottawa, Montreal and other locations would arrive.  Both signs are painted on nominal ½ inch thick particle-board.  The Fraser-Brace sign measures 25 cm by 137 cm while the DIL one measures 20 cm by 36.5 cm.  No photograph is known to exist of the building in its original location, but it was found and relocated at the Deep River campus for the 25^th anniversary celebrations in 1970 for a short while.  Its final fate is unknown.

A 51 cm by 61 cm, framed photograph of a cylinder with "structured-bed, exchange catalyst" used to enrich water with the heavier isotopes of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium) by transfer from counter-flowing hydrogen gas.  Alternating layers of gauze screen, either catalyze the isotope exchange between hydrogen gas and water vapour, or between water and water vapour.  The screens were coated with hydrophobic platinum catalyst (since liquid water deactivates the platinum); the latter provides a wettable surface.  Corrugation of the hydrophobic screens allows gas flow with minimal pressure drop.

Developed over several decades at CRNL, this type of exchange catalyst was successfully proven in an industrial setting at a large-scale prototype plant for heavy water production in Hamilton, Ontario.  For some applications, despite structured catalyst's higher rates of isotope exchange, CRNL's catalyst variant using a "random bed" of mixed hydrophobic and hydrophilic ceramic rings is used for decreased costs.

A 43 cm by 57 cm, Emergency Evacuation Board rescued during the  decommissioning of  Bldg. 250 at Chalk River laboratory.  The board recorded the names of Stewards and their Designates responsible for confirming evacuation of each area of the building if and when such an action was required.  A researcher who worked for many years in the building has been able to identify/confirm the somewhat smudged names visible when the board was donated.

A two mm thick end slice from an ingot of germanium.  The triangular ingot measured about 50 mm on a side.  This slice, which contained some crystal imperfections, was made into a simple piece of dress jewellery. A.J. Tavendale, an NRC Fellow from Australia, and G.T. Ewan of CRNL developed the lithium-drifted germanium gamma ray detectors at CRNL in 1963.  These detectors, which offered an order of magnitude improvement in resolution for detecting gamma rays, revolutionized the study of nuclear decay worldwide.  Ewan and Tavendale were awarded a Radiation Industry Prize by the American Nuclear Society in 1967 for their work.  The development was initially spun off to the RCA Victor Company in Montreal and eventually was taken over and further improved and marketed worldwide by the Oak Ridge company, ORTEC.

A framed poster illustrating the systems of the CANDU-9 reactor. The framed poster measures 62 cm by 97 cm.   

A framed poster illustrating the systems of the CANDU-6 reactors of the Pickering B Nuclear Generating Station. The framed poster measures 62 cm by 97 cm.   

A large framed collage, measuring 74 cm by 118 cm, made up of colour, aerial photographs of the NPD and the Douglas Point reactor sites together with cut-out drawing illustrating the main features of the two nuclear generating units.

A framed, black and white, aerial photograph of the CRNL website taken in the summer of 1959.  The framed photograph measures 43 cm by 53 cm.   

Matted and framed colour photograph overlooking the construction of the four-station Wolsung N.G.S.  The four reactors are each of the CANDU-6 type. The framed photograph measures 51 cm by 61 cm.   

Matted and framed colour photograph showing the calandria face of the Wolsung-4 reactor during construction.  The reactor, a CANDU-6 unit located at Seoul, South Korea, went into operation in 1999. The framed photograph measures 51 cm by 61 cm.   

Matted and framed colour photograph of the first Modular Air-Cooled Storage (MACSTOR) module at the Gentilly-2 Nuclear Generating Station site.  Derived from AECL's successful vertical-loading, concrete-silo program for storing CANDU nuclear spent fuel, MACSTOR was initially developed for light-water reactor spent fuel. It was later adapted for spent CANDU fuel. The framed photograph measures 51 cm by 61 cm.   

Matted and framed colour photograph of the Point Lapreau Nuclear Generating Station, which is located at Point Lapreau, New Brunswick. The Point Lepreau N.G.S., which was commissioned in 1983,  is the only nuclear generating facility located in Atlantic Canada and consists of a single CANDU 6 nuclear reactor.  It is located on the northern shore of the Bay of Fundy and has a net capacity of 660 MW (705 MW gross). The framed photograph measures 51 cm by 61 cm. 

Matted and framed colour photograph of the Gentilly-2 CANDU Nuclear Generating Station.  The reactor, located at Becancour, Quebec, on the St Lawrence River was a 700 MWe class CANDU 6 unit.  It went into service in 1983.  In 2012 Hydro Quebec announced the decommissioning of this unit. The framed photograph measures 51 cm by 61 cm. 

A framed block of twenty stamps issued to commemorate the Hanaro reactor in South Korea.  The nominal 30 MW MAPLE-style reactor is located at Daejeon, Republic of Korea.  It was designed and commissioned with the assistance of AECL and achieved first criticality at 16:09 on 1995-02-08.  The framed assembly, measuring 25 cm by 33 cm, displays twenty, 130 Won stamps, each 27 mm by 33 mm in size. The back of the framed artifact carries an explanation of the design by its designer, Kim Kyo-man, a Professor Emeritus at the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University.  The reactor core and fuel have a hexagonal shape which inspired a stamp design featuring six spheres representing six continents and six areas of major applications for the reactor.  

A 22 cm tall, blown-glass, goblet featuring a 9 cm tall porpoise in the stem.  Glassblowing was an important task and technique required in the early days of the nuclear industry.  CRNL was very well served with an excellent glassblowing cadre led by Rex Bailie.  In addition to the intricate pieces of glassware generated for numerous experiments, Rex produced artistic pieces that were highly valued as retirement gifts.  This particular piece was rescued from the Deep River Whistle Stop, a “second-hand” charity shop, and donated to the Society.

A spacer used in the assembly of uranium fuel elements for the Boiling Water Reactors (BWR) used in a number of Westinghouse nuclear generating sites.  The spacer and the fuels are produced by the Allmanna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA-ATOM) organization located in Vasteras, Sweden. The open-mesh spacer has a 6 cm square cross-section and is 5 cm in length.

A compact, 5 cm long, personal dosimeter of the type used at the Pt. Lapreau Nuclear Generating Station in New Brunswick.  The units are built around the Panasonic Series 800 thermoluminescent (TLD) dosimeter. The particular type used here is a Model UD806SA and uses lithium borate dosimeters.   Four, ~3mm diameter dosimeters, are encased in a simple unit that slips inside an outer jacket into which are incorporated appropriate filters.  This outer unit, in turn, fits into a clear plastic holder which offers additional filtering properties to allow discrimination of the radiation energy.  A clip on the reverse allows easy attachment to clothing.

A high-dosage, Landsverk Model IM-93/PD, pocket dosimeter.  This quartz-fiber dosimeter is typical in size (11.5 cm long by 1.3 cm diameter) of many other pocket dosimeters but is unusual in its useful range.  Typically, personal pocket dosimeters are used to record maximum radiation dosages of 200-500 mR.  This unit, developed for civil-defense applications during the “Cold War”, has a maximum indicated dosage three orders of magnitude higher, namely 600 R.  It should be noted that the lethal dose for humans (50% death within 30 days of exposure) is 25% lower than this maximum dose.  This dosimeter was sold to the public from the Diefenbunker near Ottawa.  The bunker was built as an underground bomb shelter during the Cold War.

A 28 cm tall, leaf-shaped shield presented to Bob Cousins of CRNL on his retirement in 1984 from NRU Operations.  Bob was a 20-year employee at the laboratory.  The plaque, which is attached to the wooden base, reads “Presented to Bob Cousins on the Occasion of your Retirement Oct. 19, 1984.  From NRU Operators retirement Club”.

A set of six, beverage coasters produced to commemorate the design power of 50 kW being achieved with the Industrial Materials Pulsed Electron Linear Accelerator (IMPELA).  This accelerator, built and commissioned in Bldg. 610 at CRNL, was a prototype for a series of industrial units sold by the Accelerator Business Unit for radiation sterilization and modification of materials.  Full power was first achieved on 8 November 1989.  The coasters are printed on leather and measure 9 cm in diameter. 

A battery-operated, “world” time clock with the time zones of major cities around the world marked on the clock face to allow one to readily ascertain the time in that city.  This clock, mounted in a wooden base, was one of the choices of gift that long-term (25y, 30 y etc.) employees could choose as a memento.  It measures 37 cm in height and has a small AECL “Flying A “symbol on the front of it.

A pair of eyeglasses designed to be used at CRNL when the need for a respirator arose.

The neutron scattering group at CRNL was one of the prime research groups in neutron scattering in the world.  The group was part of AECL until 1998 when severe budget cuts ended AECL support, other than the use of the NRU facility.  The group, which also acted as hosts for many researchers from other laboratories, then became part of the National Research Council.  The bilingual coffee mugs were used by members at the Canadian Neutron Beam Center, as the NRU neutron spectrometer facility became known after 1998.

The early 1970s saw the transition from electronic circuits, with discrete components such as transistors, resistors and capacitors individually soldered to circuit boards, to integrated circuits where components were printed directly on silicon chips.  Real L’Archeveque, Branch head of the Electronics Branch at CRNL began a program for the production of hybrid, integrated, circuits (HIC) where semiconductor devices (transistors, diodes and fully integrated circuits) are bonded to a substrate, which has passive components such as resistors and capacitors formed on the substrate.  This hybrid circuit, which is a square 35 mm on a side, was one of the first units developed at CRNL.  It was intended to serve as stepping motor controller.  The unit was manufactured to fit into a 20 pin socket.

A collection of the first-generation, hand-held calculators that quickly replaced the slide rule for most quick scientific and engineering calculations.  They formed the bridge between slide rules, second-generation, programmable calculators and the desk-top PC (Personal Computer).  The first widely used version at CRNL was the Hewlett Packard HP35, which appeared about 1973 and typically was priced at $400 CDN.     The collection contains the following models: HP 11C, HP25 (two of), HP 32SII, HP 33E, HP 34 C, HP35 (three of); HP45, HP67 and a Texas Instrument SR 56.  The collection also contains a series of user manuals for most of the calculators.

A precision, Model 500A, pantograph manufactured by the A. Ott company of Kempten, Germany, and sold by the Kueffel and Esser Instrument Company.  The instrument, which measures 60 cm along the longest axis, is held in a 64 cm long by 13 cm wide by 6 cm high case.  It was located as a surplus artifact in Bldg. 513 at CRNL. 

Pantographs have a long history extending back to at least 1603 and have been used by draftsmen as instruments to duplicate, magnify or reduce drawings in a desired scale.  Various versions have been used in the minting industry to reduce large drawings or sculptures to sizes appropriate for currency bills or coins and three-dimensional versions have been used on milling machines as ‘tracers” to follow drawings and generate physical objects. 

This is an 1:20 scale model of one of two accelerator components developed by the Accelerator Physics Branch at CRNL as the Canadian contribution to HERA (Hadron Electron Ring Accelerator), part of the DESY (Deutsches Electronen Synchrotron) high-energy particle accelerator at Hamburg, Germany.  CRNL built these two accelerator components under commercial contract from NSERC (Natural Sciences and Research Council).  L.W. (Warren) Funk was the Project Leader for this contract and this memento was presented to him in 1990 when he left CRNL for a position at an accelerator laboratory in the USA.  The accelerator module measures 9 cm in length and is mounted on a 14 cm by 15 cm wooden base.

A pre-cast, copper, segment for the production of an accelerating cell of a 3 GHz electron accelerator.  These accelerators were developed at CRNL as part of a joint CRNL-Commercial Products Division program to develop linear accelerators for the treatment of cancers.  The cells are typically machined from 10 cm diameter billets of Oxygen Free High Conductivity (OFHC) copper to very tight tolerances.  The machining of this material is very specialized and costly.  To reduce the costs, attempts were made to pre-cast the segments in a shape that would reduce the required machining.  The casting process, however, was found to introduce an unacceptable level of contamination into the copper.  The sample measures 10 cm in diameter and is 3 cm in thickness.

A cutaway section of a three-cell, test unit for an electron accelerator.   This was an experimental section constructed to test manufacturing techniques and radiofrequency properties for the THERAC 25 accelerator developed at CRNL for cancer treatment.  The THERAC linear accelerator operated at a frequency of 3 GHz and was commercialized by the Commercial Products Division of AECL.  The full-length accelerator, which was mounted on a gantry that could be rotated around the patient under full computer control, was just over two meters in length and the cancer patient could be treated directly with the electron beam or a tungsten converter could be inserted in the beam path to allow for a deeper-penetration gamma mode.  This test section, which measures 18 cm in length and is mounted on a 25 cm by 13 cm wooden base, was presented to Warren Funk on his departure from AECL in 1990.  He was one of the key members of the group that developed the THERAC 25 at CRNL.

A 15 cm tall, stainless-steel model of a heavy-water storage/shipping drum on a 22 cm square wooden base.  The artifact was a memento given to Mike Blore of Chalk River in appreciation of his assistance over 15 years with the Port Hawkesbury Heavy Water Plant.   The attached plaque reads “AECL PORT HAWKESBURY HEAVY WATER PLANT; MICHAEL H.K. BLORE; IN RECOGNITION OF YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO HEAVY WATER INDUSTRY; Dec 2, 1971 to Nov 3, 1986”.

An Indian or Gurkha ceremonial knife called a “kukri” or “khukuri”.  It was presented by Indian, reactor trainees to Al Herriott of CRNL, who led the training program for Indian reactor trainees at Chalk River.  The trainees were preparing for the operation of the CIRUS reactor at Trombay in India.  The 40 MW reactor was modeled on the NRX reactor at Chalk River and first went critical in 1960.  The kukri, a characteristic weapon of the Gurkhas in the Nepalese army, has an overall length of 43 cm.   It is held in a leather scabbard and traditionally is accompanied by two smaller (10 cm long) knives, one of which is a tool for sharpening the main blade.

An 8 cm by 24 cm, cardboard, slide rule distributed by Radiation Counter Laboratories (RCL) that allows one to calculate a number of functions based on half-life, dead-time of counters, absorption material, standard deviation, etc.  It will also generate an estimate of the beta particle energies for a specific range.  The instruction manual was copyrighted by RCL in 1949.  The listed sale price at that time was $1.00.

A red and purple, ceremonial gown worn by W.B. Lewis at the 21 May 1975 University of Victoria Convocation when he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.  The Convocation Program was also donated with the gown.  Dr. Petch’s introduction of Dr. Lewis is highlighted.

A red and black, ceremonial gown worn by W.B. Lewis at the 1974 Convocation of Royal Military College, Kingston, when he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree.  The Convocation Program was also donated with the gown. 

A red and white, ceremonial gown worn by W.B. Lewis at the 28 May, 1977,Laurentian University Convocation when he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree.  The Convocation Program was also donated with the gown.  Dr. Lewis was the afternoon Convocation speaker.

The certificate of the Honorary Doctor of Science degree awarded to W.B. Lewis by Laurentian University, Sudbury, on 19 May 1977. It had been stored in a blue mailing tube tied with a blue and gold ribbon.

A red and white ceremonial gown worn by W.B. Lewis at the May 1972 University of Toronto Convocation when he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.  The Convocation Program was also donated with the gown.

The certificate of the Honorary Doctor of Laws degree awarded to W.B. Lewis by the University of Toronto, Toronto, on 30 May 1972. It had been stored in a marbled-finish mailing tube.

The certificate of the Honorary Doctor of Science degree awarded to W.B. Lewis by McGill University, Montreal, in June 1969. It had been stored in a red mailing tube.

The certificate of the Honorary Doctor of Science degree awarded to W.B. Lewis by Dartmouth University, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA, on 11 June 1967.  The certificate was contained within a university-generated mailing tube which also contained a copy of the introduction of Dr. Lewis to the attendees.

The certificate of the Honorary Doctor of Science degree awarded to W.B. Lewis by the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, on 12 May 1964. The certificate was simply rolled and tied with a green bow. 

The certificate of the Honorary Doctor of Laws degree awarded to W.B. Lewis by Dalhousie University at Halifax on 29 October 1960.  The certificate which was stored within a mailing tube has the unusual feature of having a copy of the seal on a ribbon which allows it to hang over and hide the date of the award.

A certificate announcing the election of W.B. Lewis to the Royal Society of Canada.  The certificate, written entirely in Latin, is dated 2 June 1952.  It was contained in a rolled-up mailing tube, which was in turn wrapped in brown packing paper.

A proclamation, issued by Roland Michener, Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order of Canada, on the appointment of W.B. Lewis to Companion of the Order of Canada. The proclamation was signed 22 December 1967 at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.  Also found packaged in the mailing tube that contains the proclamation is a 36 cm by 46 cm, sepia, portrait of Dr. Lewis.  It is unclear if this is an “official” portrait that marks the appointment or if it was added at a later date.  The mailing label on the tube shows the sender to be Government House in Ottawa and the addressee is Dr. Lewis at 33 Beach Avenue, Deep River.

A brown-coloured mailing tube containing three university degree certificates awarded by Gonville and Caius College of Cambridge University to W.B. Lewis.  They are a Bachelor of Arts degree, awarded 24 June 1930 (certificate, however, dated 9 July 1930), a Master of Arts degree, awarded 10 March 1934, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree awarded, 11 May 1934.  

A 53 cm by 89 cm, colour, poster depicting the main features of the 675 MWe CANDU 6 reactor installed on the St. Lawrence River 15 km east of Trois-Rivieres.  The reactor, owned by Hydro-Quebec, was commissioned in 1982 and shut down for decommissioning in 2012.  The drawing first appeared in the June 1974 issue of Nuclear Engineering International and was revised by Hydro-Quebec in 1994. See also artifact 2019-076 for a similar poster depicting the features of  Gentilly 1.

A matted, 50 cm by 58 cm, black and white photograph collage of personnel who had worked at various times in the Chemical Engineering Branch in Bldg. 250 at CRNL. This version of the photograph was assembled about 1970.   The right-hand photo has names of personnel added, where known.  Slightly different versions of the collage were made as retirement gifts for different people.  See artifact 2019-087 for a similar collage assembled by Al Bancroft, but believed to have been generated several years earlier.

A matted, 50 cm by 58 cm, black and white photograph collage of personnel who had worked at various times in the Chemical Engineering Branch in Bldg. 250 at CRNL.  Slightly different versions of the collage were made as retirement gifts for different people.  This one is believed to have been assembled by Al Bancroft for Pat Cahill’s retirement in 1967.  See artifact 2019-088 for a similar collage that had most personnel identified.

Insulating soda-can covers bearing the message that the volume of nuclear waste generated to meet one person’s lifetime electrical needs could be fit into the volume of one standard soda can.  These covers were generated by the Canadian Nuclear Association as a promotion for clean nuclear energy.

An 11 cm diameter, 2 cm thick, glass block illustrating the volume of glass that would contain the high-level waste from the nuclear fuel needed to supply one person with their lifetime electrical needs.

A 10 cm diameter by 2 cm thick drill-core sample of granite obtained during studies at Whiteshell Laboratories for the Underground Research Laboratory (URL).  The sample is engraved with the stylized profile of the above ground shaft-head and rests on an 8 cm by 12 cm wooden base.

 A 50 cm by 58 cm, faded, colour, aerial photograph of the CRNL site looking from the north.  Exact date unknown but estimated to be about 1965 because of the lack of Building 610.

A 17 cm by 22 cm, boxed, gold and silver finish, memento celebrating the 50th anniversary of AECL in 2002. This commemorative gift was presented to all AECL employees with a message from the AECL President and CEO, Robert van Adel.

A collection of badges and insignia worn on the uniforms of personnel in the Protective Services section of CRNL.

A 20 cm by 51 cm, matted, three-photo collage of the SLOWPOKE-themed team who took part in the 1988 Corry Lake Triathlon.  L-R, photo 1 Al Bancroft (snowshoe segment), John Hilborn (skate segment) and Gerry Lunch (ski segment); photo 2, Al Bancroft; photo 3; Al Bancroft, John Hilborn and Gerry Lynch.

A 28 cm by 44 cm, colour, photograph of the group who met at the Keys Center in Deep River in May 1986 to discuss the commercial launch of a SLOWPOKE reactor for district heating applications.  L-R (back): Ken Kozier, Dave Mc Dougall, Al Bancroft, Yvonne Rawlingson, Gerry Lynch.  (Seated) Sandy McDowall, Arnold Smith, John Hilborn, Mitch Ohta.

A 61 cm by 91 cm colour poster produced by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited to depict “The Nuclear Fission Process in the CANDU Reactor”.

 A 57 cm by 88 cm, colour, poster depicting the features of the Heysham 2 and Torness reactors.  Both these reactors are of the AGR (gas-cooled, graphite-moderated) design and have a nominal electrical output of 1250 MW.  Heysham 2 is located in Lancashire, UK, and became operational in 1988 while the Torness unit, also operational in 1988, is located at Torness Point, near Edinburgh, in Scotland.  The design used in these two units was slightly improved on for the Hinkley Point B generating station.  This diagram first appeared in the March 1981 issue of Nuclear Engineering International. 

A 57 cm by 83 cm, colour, poster depicting the features of the 250 MW Gentilly 1 reactor.  This natural uranium, boiling water prototype reactor was constructed by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited on the shores of the St. Lawrence River east of Montreal.  It achieved first criticality in November 1970 and after a series of runs was shut down in 1977.  This drawing was first published in 1972 by Nuclear Engineering International.

A 53 cm by 89 cm, colour, poster depicting the main features of the 600 MW CANDU reactor installed at Pt. Lapreau, New Brunswick.  The Unit was commissioned in February 1983.  The drawing first appeared in the June 1977 issue of Nuclear Engineering International.

A 53 cm by 88 cm, colour, poster depicting the features of a CANDU 3 reactor developed by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) for the intermediate-sized generating market.  The units have a net nominal electrical generation capacity of 450 MW.  The drawing first appeared in the May 1990 issue of Nuclear Engineering International.

A 53 cm by 88 cm, colour, poster depicting the General Electric design of PRISM (Power Reactor Innovative Small Module) reactor.  This design is intended to operate with fast neutrons.  The drawing used in the poster was first published in the Nov 1987 issue of Nuclear Engineering International.

A 43 cm by 60 cm, colour, poster depicting the components of the Trawsfynydd nuclear generating station.  The station, which consists of two 235 MW generators, is of the MAGNOX variety and is located in the Snowdon National Park in Wales.  It became operational in 1965 and was shut down in 1991.  The poster was produced by the UK Central Electricity Generating Board.

 A 30 cm by 90 cm, colour, poster explaining the relation between radiation wavelength and various applications of it.  The poster was produced by Science North in Sudbury.

Two clothing badges available for employees at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station (BNGS).  One announces membership in the BNGS Social Club while the other commemorates three million man-hours of accident-free operation at the station.

A framed, 22 cm by 27 cm, colour photograph showing an aerial view of the Whiteshell Laboratories of AECL.

An artist’s depiction of a large underground facility that would be used to store nuclear wastes.  The framed drawing measures 22 cm by 27 cm.

An artist’s depiction of the experimental arrangement at the Underground Research Laboratory at the Whiteshell Laboratories of AECL.  The framed drawing measures 22 cm by 27 cm.

A metal-banded, men’s, analogue wrist watch.  The watch bears the logo of the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited Security Services and was given to long-term or retiring employees of the Security Services as a memento of their service.

A Friden Model STW10 mechanical calculator.  Motor driven “calculating machines” were developed and put in service by a number of companies before the advent of electronic computers at the start of the 1950s.  The STW10, which measures 35 cm along the movable, 20-digit, upper carriage was first sold by the Friden company in 1949.  It’s subsequent successor, the Model SRW, was marketed several years later and had the added ability to calculate square-roots of numbers. 

At CRNL, the “calculating group” (so-called before the “computer group”) used the Friden STW10 as well as similar calculating machines made by Marchant and Hughes-Owens.  It has not been confirmed that this particular unit was used at CRNL.  The name plate on the side of the machine indicates that it was originally the property of the US Navy.  A paper tag attached to the power cord indicates that it was counted in an inventory made in 1972.

A 7 cm tall by 5.5 cm wide by 4.5 cm thick wooden block that has been laser-engraved with the “flying A” AECL logo.  The hole in the top indicates this artifact was probably intended as a candle holder.  It is not known if it was intended as a gift item for employees and/or visitors or whether it was sold in a local gift shop.

A silk scarf bearing the AECL logo  and believed to have been one of the items developed by J. L. (Lorne) Gray as a small gift to visiting dignitaries and to hosts when invited to visit abroad. The blue and gold coloured scarf measures 133 cm by 23 cm.

An AECL-themed men’s wrist watch developed as a service-milestone gift for long-term employees.  It is not known what “image” the artist was attempting to convey with the design on the watch face.

A collection of buttons, pins, and small collector items dealing with the nuclear industry.

A 6.5 cm tall acrylic Inukshuk mounted on a 12.5 cm by 7.5 cm acrylic base.  This memento was used as a door prize at an event held on June 2004 to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the formation of the Canadian Nuclear Society (CNS).  The lucky winner was Michael Stephens of Chalk River Laboratories.

A coffee mug issued in 2010, commemorating 50 years of operation of the ZED-2 test reactor at the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories.  The reactor, located in Building 145, came into operation in 1960.

A laser-engraved, 7.5 cm sided, acrylic cube commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its Atoms for Peace mandate.  The IEAE was formed in 1957.  The cube has one corner removed to allow the cube to sit at a 45-degree angle.

This “slide and conversion” rule, called the GraphAnalogue, was developed by Heinz Joseph Gerber, an Austrian refugee, who emigrated to the USA during WWII and later established the Gerber Scientific Instrument Company.  He invented this device for converting graphs to linear, reciprocal, trigonometric, logarithmic, or probability equations. The conversion is done through the ingenious use of an adjustable-length triangular spring mounted on the upper edge and readings taken from one or more of the from 18 scales inscribed on the ruler body.  The GraphAnalogue was a spin off from an earlier device known as a Variable Scale.  This GraphAnalogue, a Model GA-130, which is approximately 37.5 cm long, is housed in a leather-like case and was donated complete with an instruction manual.  It was used by scientists and engineers at the Nuclear Reactor Universal (NRU) at CRNL.

A high-power General Electric GL-861 triode.  This vacuum tube, which measures 43 cm in length, was capable of up to 400 W of power at frequencies up to 20 MHz.  The large size is dictated both by the relatively high power and the need for high-voltage isolation. A tube plate voltage of up to 3000V could be applied.  While there has been no identified application directly in the nuclear industry, this tube was used to train engineering and physics students at the University of Toronto who graduated and played important roles in the industry.  This model of electron tube was developed ~1935.

A 35 cm diameter, silver-plated, platter awarded to R. (Ross) B. Shields to commemorate 25 years of service with NRC/AECL.  Ross Shields was one of the pioneers of the nuclear industry, having joined the Chalk River Laboratories in January 1946. He spent most of his career in instrumentation and in particular in the Reactor Control Branch.  He retired from AECL in 1978.

This so-called “plasma ball” was developed in the mid-1980s by Larry Albright of Rabbit Systems, a USA company, based on an idea patented by Nikoli Telsa in 1894.  The device has an 18 cm diameter glass ball mounted on a 14 cm cube, which houses a high-frequency, high-voltage transformer.  The center post, connected to the transformer, operates at a negative potential in the several kV range at a frequency of about 30kHz.  The oscillating high-voltage causes an ionic breakdown of the low-pressure noble gas (usually neon) and multiple arcs are formed to the inside of the sphere which is at ground potential.  Because the electric field extends beyond the surface of the sphere, objects outside the sphere can affect the shape of the discharge within the sphere.  There is also an audio mode that can be selected which modulates the transformer to change the discharge pattern with voice or music input. The commercial device has been marketed as an “Eye of the Storm” lighting unit starting in 1987.

A design manual entitled “essential characteristics” published by Canadian General Electric in the early 1950s listing the operating instructions and operating characteristics of its wide range of electronic vacuum tubes. A “must-have” for all involved with electronic circuits in that era.

One of the first transistors commercially available was the 2N137.  It was available in the beginning of the 1950s and the manufacturer, Canadian General Electric, had not yet developed a suitable “transistor box” but instead continued to use its inventory of vacuum tube boxes with the transistor type printed on the end.  The donor suggested it might be regarded as a “transitional transistor”.

A variety of electron tubes which depended on a glow discharge rather than a vacuum were the cold-cathode “Nixie” tubes used extensively in radiation detection/counting equipment.  These tubes were constructed with a series of wires shaped to form the numbers from 0 to 9.  Circuitry driving the tubes would produce a glow discharge in the gas in the tube (typically neon) near the desired number allowing a visual readout. Because these cold cathode tubes did not rely on heating and cooling of wires, Nixie tubes operated at relatively high counting rates.  The name Nixie is believed to have been derived from the term  “Numeral Indicator eXperimental” and the tubes, which were developed in the early 1950s, were used extensively in the nuclear industry in radiation counting experiments as well as voltage, current and frequency meters until the 1990s. Typical units were 3 cm in height and in diameter.

A vacuum tube used primarily in radiofrequency equipment to determine the optimum signal strength and tuning frequency.  These vacuum tubes are compact cathode-ray tubes which incorporate one or two beam-deflecting electrodes that cause the electron beam to strike a phosphor and produce a large visible glow (typically green in colour) when the signal is weak or far away from the optimum frequency.  When the equipment is tuned to the correct frequency, only a small area of the phosphor is struck by the electron beam thereby signalling the optimum tuning frequency.  These “Magic-Eye” tubes, so called because the end-view resembles a cat’s glowing eye, were first used in the 1930s and were used in a range of applications.

This particular type, a JAN, CRC-1629, VT-138, measuring just over 9 cm in length, was donated complete with a six-pin socket and mounting bracket. Versions of this tube were manufactured by a number of suppliers including RCA and Sylvania.

A fabric-based bag presented to delegates to the Canadian Radiation Protection Association (CRPA)-sponsored conference held in Montreal May 21-29, 2000.  The conference theme was the As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) approach to radiation protection.  The bag measures 41 cm by 36 cm.

A 3-D printed model showing a sectioned view of an ion source that was specially designed at CNL for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), a technique for precision radiocarbon dating of organic samples of archaeological or geophysical interest. Radiocarbon dating allows the determination of ages of carbon-bearing samples back to approximately 50,000 years before the present; an era encompassing the appearance of anatomically-modern humans. This device was developed in a collaboration of CNL with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. 

The model, which stands 17 cm above a 30 cm by 20 cm wooden base, was manufactured at CNL using a 3-D printer and was presented to John Wills on his retirement from CNL in 2010. John spent many years at CRNL working on ion-source development.

Personal “pocket” dosimeters, manufactured by Stephen Ltd. in Surrey, England were used extensively at the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor to allow rapid checking of received radiation dosage.  They were used to measure gamma and x-ray radiation.  These ~12 cm long dosimeters had a range of 0-500 mR and were based on a miniature ionization chamber. In usage an anode is charged up to a positive potential as is a quartz fiber.  The anode and quartz fiber then are repelled from each other and the fiber is deflected.  Ionization due to received radiation reduces the charge on the anode and decreases the deflection of the quartz fiber.  The amount of the deflection, which can be seen by looking down the length of the chamber, is proportional to the radiation dose received. These new units were donated complete with original boxes and instruction sheets.

Two magnetic tapes, in their cases, that were used on the PDP-8 computer at the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor dedicated to control, monitor and record activities of the fueling machine.  The tapes, manufactured by the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), are approximately 10 cm in outer diameter. One of the tapes is marked as having been used 22 September 1986, approximately a year before the shutdown of the NPD reactor.

A 7 cm length of ~4 mm diameter garter spring.  The garter springs are used in CANDU reactors to maintain a spacing between the pressure tube and the calandria tube.  They are made from square cross-section wire and have been made from several different alloys.  The cross-sectional diameter varies from the ~4 mm diameter shown here from a test unit to almost 8 mm used on some channels at the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor.

A  spare pneumatic fitting of the type used for the fueling machine on the Nuclear Demonstration reactor at Rolphton to connect the machine to the fluids used during remote fueling and to supply hydraulic power. The stainless steel fitting is 9 cm in length.

Two spare, multi-pin, electrical connectors providing power and signals to the fueling machines at the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor.  The 35 pin connectors measure 8 cm in length.

A seal disc, also known as a “soft seal stubby”, used at the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor as a temporary seal for a leaking end fitting on a fuel channel.  The metal-metal seal was made on the outer edge of the “rimmed” face by cantilevering the entire disc.  The discs, which have an outer diameter of 16 cm, were manufactured in varying thicknesses with this specific one (serial number 817) being 0.310 inches (7.87 mm) in thickness.  The version of seal was temporary in nature in that it was used until a shutdown during which the regular sealing surface on the end fitting could be remotely retooled (ground) to correct the marred surface causing the leak.  The imperfection most likely would have occurred during a refueling operation.

A triangular cross-section, wooden and brass memento celebrating the initial criticality of the Hanaro (High Flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor) reactor in Korea.  This nominal 30 MW, MAPLE-style reactor, is located at Daejeon, Republic of Korea.  It was designed and commissioned with the assistance of AECL and achieved first criticality at 16:09 on 1995-02-08.  The memento, which measures 23 cm in width by 10 cm in height, is inscribed in Korean, English and Chinese.  The top line on the reverse carries a message promoting globalization from the Minister of Science, Mr. Jung.  What follows are the names (and possibly signatures) of 150-200 personnel involved most directly with the project.  The name of Garry Kugler of AECL’s Power Projects can be found in the middle of the list.  (Hanaro may also be translated as “to be one”.)

A 29 cm diameter photo-etch plaque, mounted in a 43 cm by 36 cm frame, that features a wide variety of AECL projects in which the CRNL Drafting Office had participated over an extended period of time.  Included are reactor projects ranging from ZEEP to Bruce, heavy water projects at Glace Bay and Port Hawkesbury and Commercial Products items such at the THERAC therapy units.  The artifact was displayed for many years outside the model shop in Bldg. 456 and was rescued from there and donated to the Society.

A plastic, “mechanical” calendar that required a physical daily change of the characters.  This artifact stood behind the front desk of the main CRNL Library for many years.  It measured 61 cm (24 inches) tall and was 12 cm wide.  Sliding tabs were moved up and down to select the correct month, day of the week and date.  The unit was rescued shortly before the demolition of the building in 2019.

A pair of glass-bottomed, pewter retirement mugs presented to Jim Ungrin, Branch Manager of the Accelerator Physics Branch (APB), on his retirement in 1996.  One of the mugs bears the signatures of his colleagues in Bldg. 145 at CRNL while the other has the signatures of the attendees at the dinner held to honour the retirees from the Physics Division.  The Physics Division, which included APB, was “defunded” by AECL at the end of June 1996 due to severe budget cuts.

A pair of glass-bottomed, pewter, retirement mugs presented to Ken McKee of the Accelerator Physics Branch (APB) on his retirement in 1996.  One of the mugs bears the signatures of his colleagues in Bldg. 145 at CRNL while the other has the signatures of the attendees at the dinner held to honour the retirees from the Physics Division.  The Physics Division, which included APB, was “defunded” by AECL at the end of June 1996 due to severe budget cuts.

Two vials containing CANDU-type fuel pellets.  One vial contains four, 12 mm diameter by 20 mm long, pellets with thin cardboard spacers between the pellets while the other contains three more of the same pellets as well as a smaller, 8 mm diameter, 14 mm long, pellet.  The smaller pellet is very near the dimensions used in a Pressurised-Water Reactor (PWR). Overall, the vials measure 90 mm in length.  To prevent direct contact with the pellets, the vials have been mounted in a glass-fronted 20 cm by 15 cm wooden box.  It is not known if these pellets were used strictly for display purposes or if they were used in some minor experiments.

A pewter mug presented to Victor H. Allen on his retirement in 1985 from the Instrument Development Branch at Chalk River and autographed by 46 colleagues from his Electronics Division in Bldg. 600.  The mug is 12 cm tall and the engraving on the rim of the glass bottom indicates that it was manufactured by the “Old English Pewter Company”.

A retirement memento from the Maintenance and Construction Division at Chalk River, which Al Herriot led at his retirement.  Al, a long-term employee of AECL, was also a widely respected naturalist and outdoorsman.  The L-shaped unit, which measures 28 cm in height 31 cm in width, features a photo-etch plaque marking his retirement date of 1983 June and models representing anticipated post-retirement activities including trout fishing and hard work at his woodlot.

 A photo-etch plaque mounted on a wooden base and presented to C.A. Herriot on his retirement on 03 June 1983 honouring his service in three research reactors, namely NRX and NRU and the Taiwan Research Reactor (TRR) where he worked 1971-1973 on attachment from AECL.  After serving in the operation and leadership of NRU, Al Herriot went on to lead the Maintenance and Construction Division at Chalk River until his retirement. The square, wooden, plaque measures 28 cm on a side.

A “weather station” gift given to C.A. Herriot in 1980 marking his 25 years of service with AECL. The unit, which measures 51 cm in height, incorporates a digital clock, a thermometer, and two barometers.  C.A. Herriot was a long-time employee who played a major role in the successful operation of the NRU and NRX reactors at CRNL.  He retired in 1983.

A set of four plastic beverage coasters manufactured in 2007 to commemorate 50 years of operation of the NRU reactor at Chalk River.  The octagonal coasters, which measure 10 cm across their width, sit in a square, slotted, wooden base that measures 10 cm on a side.

A 5 cm diameter bronze medallion struck in 1987 by the Lombardo Mint to celebrate “Engineering in Canada – One Hundred Years as an Organized Profession”.  Engineers have played a crucial role in the development of the nuclear industry from its infancy to its major role in providing energy in Canada and abroad.

A Model 965 Moore and Wright, nominal 1”, micrometer complete with tightening wrench.  The micrometer sits in a wooden box that is 15 cm in length by 7 cm wide by 2.5 cm high and has a sliding top.  Engraved into the rotating spindle of the micrometer is the manufacturer's name (Moore & Wright (Sheffield) Ltd. England) and a conversion scale from fractional parts of an inch to decimal scale (i.e. 1/64 “ = 0.15625 “).  The Moore & Wright company was established in 1906 and is now part of the Bowers Group. This micrometer belonged to Bill McAlpin, a draftsman in the neutron spectroscopy group at CRNL.

A set of three drafting compasses which are also described in the literature as “bow pencils”.  The three are all manufactured by the famed German company of Keuffel and Esser.  The larger of the three, which is 16 cm in length, is a Model 55 1748 while the smaller of the boxed units, which measures 11 cm in length, is a Model 55 3109.  The third unboxed unit is the same size as the smaller boxed one but has minor variations in construction.  It is stamped with the K&E logo and was also made in Germany. This set was used by Bill McAlpin, a draftsman in the neutron spectroscopy group at CRNL.

A vintage Leroy lettering set produced by the famous Keuffel & Esser Company.  These lettering sets were used extensively during the 1960s to produce India ink lettering on drawings for scientific publications.  The set is housed in a wooden box 40 cm in length by 10 cm in width by 4 cm in height.  It contains nine engraved templates each with a different set of letters and numerals, a pen and a set of pen nibs.   The user has a choice of symbol heights (in thousands of an inch) from 60 to 500.  Ten different pen widths are also available. A chart on the box lists the recommended pen width for each letter size.  Drawing instructions are located on the inside of the wooden case.   This set was used by Bill McAlpine, a draftsman in the neutron scattering group at Chalk  River.

A vintage set of drafting compasses and pens produced by the Reifler Mathematical Instrument Company in Nesselwang, Germany.  This company produced a large variety of draftsman’s tools.  This A58 Model, which is housed in a velvet-lined, leatherette box, was used by Bill McAlpin, the designer of the neutron diffraction spectrometer used by B. Brockhouse for his Nobel prize-winning work as well as many other neutron spectrometers at Chalk River.  The container is 28 cm long and 13 cm wide.

A vintage set of large, drawing compasses produced by the Reifler Mathematical Instrument Company in Nesselwang, Germany.  This company produced a large variety of draftsman’s tools.  This R2 model has extension rods to allow usage up to a diameter of 107 cm (42 “) and was used by Bill McAlpin, the designer of the neutron diffraction spectrometer used by B. Brockhouse for his Nobel prize-winning work as well as many other neutron spectrometers at Chalk River.  The compass set is housed in a leatherette case which is 46 cm long and 11 cm wide.

A set of two General Electric surface-roughness gauges.  The gauges, each 15 cm in length, are stored in a leather pouch and show surfaces machined to an average surface roughness ranging from 4 micro-inches to 200 micro-inches.  The gauges are manufactured by General Electric and the instructions engraved into them suggests that one should make a “comparison by sight and feel” according to GE instruction GEJ-1136.  The finer-finish gauge shows a catalogue number 342X60 while the coarser-finish gauge is catalogue 343X61. The gauges were used by draftsmen and engineers to specify an acceptable surface roughness on drawings for the construction of a component.

A nominal 2 inch (5 cm), EMI Type 9789B, photomultiplier tube.  The 13 stage tube measures 12 cm in length and has a 16-pin base.  It was used at CRNL for measuring the light emitted by the thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) worn in personal radiation dosimeters by laboratory personnel.  Under normal circumstances the TLDs, which are one part of the personal dosimeters, are read out routinely every two weeks and the recorded dose is entered into the worker’s record.

A 29 cm by 95 cm, framed, composite-panoramic photograph of the Wolsung-1, CANDU-6 reactor during construction in South Korea.  The photograph was taken before the days of digital cameras and is a composite of eight individual photographs. The reactor went into operation in 1983.  The photographs were taken in 1978 and the panorama was presented to V. Cecco of CRNL who was assigned to an inspection role at Wolsung during construction.

An end fitting of the type used at the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor adapted as the basis of an analogue clock. The item was manufactured as a retirement memento and was given to C.A. (Al) Herriot on the occasion of his retirement from AECL in recognition of his efforts at the power station. The memento sits on a 30 cm by 15 cm wooden base and the end fitting is approximately 14 cm in diameter. The plaque reads ”To Al Herriot on the occasion of his retirement June 1983, from his friends and colleagues at NPD and CGE.”

A 13 cm tall, shaped, AECL-patented, ceramic component that was used with the THERAC 25 accelerator to provide irradiation of tumours in the bremsstrahlung mode.  The THERAC 25 was an electron accelerator with a beam that was typically only several mm in diameter.  This beam would be magnetically scanned across a near-surface tumour for treatments.  Deep-seated tumours required operation in the super-X-ray or bremsstrahlung mode whereby the electron beam strikes a material that converts the electron beam energy into energetic photons.  This device, with the pointed end towards the electron beam, served to convert the energy and also to scatter the generated photon radiation uniformly so that a typical 20 cm by 20 cm treatment area would be treated with a uniform or flat radiation dose.  The ceramic material, often aluminum-based, was adequately-efficient in generating the bremsstrahlung radiation while minimizing the production of neutrons. High Z materials like tantalum are more efficient but also contaminate the beam with a greater flux of neutrons.

A 4.0 cm long section of a uranium oxide fuel rod used in the NRU reactor.  The first loading in NRU used uranium metal fuel. This was replaced by aluminum-clad uranium oxide rods around 1963.  This 6.2 cm diameter section was used for display purposes and later as on office paperweight at AECL Head Office in Ottawa.  A potting compound was used for this display in the cooling channels between the elements where cooling water would normally flow.  The flattening on one side is due to inadvertent distortion of the relatively-soft aluminum over the years. 

A 4.3 cm long section of a uranium oxide fuel rod from NRX.  For the first 15 years of operation (1947-1961) natural uranium-metal rods were used as the standard fuel.  In 1961 solid-pellet, uranium-oxide rods were fabricated for irradiation.  This short section was from one of the unirradiated rods and was used for display purposes and for years served as a paperweight to AECL Head Office in Ottawa.  The diameter of the uranium-oxide section is 35 mm while the sheath thickness is 2 mm.  The unit sits inside a fuel channel with an inside diameter of 41 mm and an outside diameter of 46 mm.

A fabric-based carry-bag commemorating the 40^th anniversary of the NRU reactor at Chalk River in 1997.  The items were given to many employees who had played a major role in the successful operation of the reactor over its extended operation as a neutron source for experiments and as a major world producer of medical radioisotopes.

A 21 cm tall, fluted, glass, candle-holder with the AECL “flying-A” logo etched into the 8 cm wide base. 

An 18 cm diameter ceramic plate produced to commemorate the start-up of CANDU-6 reactor unit 1 at Cernovoda, Romania, in 1996.  The reactor was built as a joint Canadian-Italian-Romanian project.  This reactor was planned to be the first of five units at Cernovoda.  As of 2019, only the first two units are operational due to the uncertain financial situation in Romania.  This memento was presented to Frederick Goddyn, who was part of the AECL team involved in the construction of the reactor.

A black, standard-sized, ceramic coffee mug given to employees at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories to emphasis the role of individuals in safety procedures with a target of zero person-hours lost to injury on the job.

W.B. Lewis was awarded the prestigious Enrico Fermi Award by the President of the USA, Ronald Regan, and the US Department of Energy (DOE) in 1982.  The award dated February 24, 1982, would normally have been made at the White House in Washington but because of Dr. Lewis’s poor health, the ceremony was instead held at the CRNL library auditorium on July 26, 1982.  The presentation to Dr. Lewis was made by the head of the US delegation, Alvin Trivelpiece, Director of the Office of Energy Research, US DOE.

A 20 cm by 30 cm, framed, colour photograph of the TASCC Users Group who attended a meeting at CRNL to discuss the upcoming beam-time schedule from the TASCC facility and collaborative experiments.  The Users Group consisted largely of Nuclear Physics Branch personnel from CRNL but also included experimenters from a number of universities.  This meeting held in May 1991 was one of a series of meetings held once or twice per year.

Protective coveralls worn by Radiation Protection workers at various locations within CRNL when probability of contact with loose radioactive material that could lead to contamination of clothing was low.

These laboratory coats were used by personnel or visitors in the NRU reactor at CRNL who worked in areas where direct contact with radioactive materials was unlikely.  For others, who had a higher probability of direct contamination, special clothing was issued.  The lab coats were restricted to use in NRU and after usage would be washed in an “active-area” laundry.

Personnel working in the areas of the NRU reactor at CRNL where they might come into contact with radioactive material that might contaminate their clothing were required to change from the normal clothing into designated clothing which was then monitored for contamination and washed in a special laundry.  In NRU this could involve a complete set of clothing including undergarments, socks and coveralls.  To ensure that an employee might not accidentally forget and wear the clothing outside of the reactor, the undergarments and socks were an unforgettable bright red colour.                                                         

Framed citation presented to J.L. Gray with the Professional Engineers Gold Medal which he was awarded in 1973 by the Association of the Professional Engineers of Ontario (AREO) recognizing “his outstanding contributions to engineering, to science, and the national interest, made as an engineer and an administrator, whose foresight, initiative and determination brought about the development of a unique nuclear power system especially suited to Canada.”  The framed citation measures 28 cm by 36 cm.

A replica of the badge presented to J. L. Gray, long-time President of AECL, when he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada.  The badge is mounted in a matted 30 cm by 41 cm frame.  J.L. Gray was appointed a Companion 19 December 1969 and the Investiture took place on 21 April 1970.

Three generations of personal dosimeter/identification badges used at Chalk River Laboratories.  The 6 cm square badges displayed the photo and employee number on the front and were attached to the clothing near waist level with a clip fastener.  The front could be flipped open and up to about 1968 revealed a film dosimeter, which was removed and the exposed dose read every two weeks.  In addition, the inside of the badge contained a sulphur tablet and an indium foil that were read if it was suspected the wearer might have received a measurable exposure to neutrons.  Several absorbers of varying thickness were used in front of the film to differentiate the energy of the absorbed gamma/beta radiation. About 1970 the film segment was replaced by two thermoluminescent detectors (TLDs).  Changes in the geometry of the badge were introduced around 2000 and in addition, additional dosimeter elements were added. 

A daily shift log was kept in a standard three-ring binder of experiments and important events in the operation of the Tandem And SuperConducting Cyclotron (TASCC) facility.  It was announced by AECL in 1996 that funding for the Nuclear Physics program at CRNL would end effective 30 June 1997. The program was unable to secure sufficient funding from other government departments and as a result TASCC was shut down.  This last shift log from 1997 records the final activities. In particular it records that the final beam and turn-off of the accelerator occurred at 20:00 14 February 1997.  The final entry for that day reads ”At 20:00 Valentine’s Day 1997 the last beam from the tandem was ended thus completing the massacre of the TASCC facility.  This ended 50 years of nuclear science leadership in the world and ironically occurred on the day the government awarded 100s of millions of new dollars for scientific infrastructure in Canada!  (Signature unknown).  The facility was then dismantled and sold for scrap.

A 28 cm by 43 cm, laminated, colour-coded, diagram of the  Tandem And SuperConducting Cyclotron (TASCC) beam-delivery system with each of the elements identified.  Beam could be delivered to the experimental rooms either directly from the tandem accelerator or it could be routed to the superconducting cyclotron for acceleration to higher energies before being sent to the experimental areas.  Elements were required along the entire complex beamline to steer, focus and measure the beam.  The TASCC facility produced its last beam on 14 February 1997 after which it was decommissioned and dismantled, largely for scrap metal recycling.

In the early 1980s the topic of accelerator-based neutron sources for fissile fuel breeding was being investigated internationally.  Fusion-based devices were considered as alternate sources for these neutrons.  Canada had an active program in fusion studies at Varennes, Quebec, and based partly on this factor and partly on the lack of an AECL research presence in Quebec, the Federal Government gave preliminary approval to the design and construction of a high-current 10 MeV accelerator in a new complex to be built near the fusion laboratory.  The accelerator became known as the Zero Energy BReeder Accelerator (ZEBRA) project.  A group of about 10 scientists spent a year in French language training at CRNL in preparation for the move.  However, in late 1984, for a variety of reasons the initiative was terminated as a Quebec project. The clock which measures 30 cm across the hexagonal faces, was presented on retirement to J. Ungrin, one of the persons on the ZEBRA team and the designer of the project logo.

Stratton & Company Limited of Birmingham, UK, produced a series of high stability communications receivers at their Eddystone Works.   The Model S880, built in 1960, was one of the last vacuum-tube based models produced at this factory.  Later models were mostly transistor based. The Model S880 operated over the frequency range from 500 kHz to 30.5 MHz in thirty, equal, switched ranges. This unit, which is housed in a ~50 cm square chassis that is 24 cm high, was purchased in 1960 by Dr. W.B. Lewis, the Scientific Director of the Chalk River Laboratories, for his home usage.  Dr. Lewis, who had an electronics background, was not fully satisfied with the degree of sensitivity of the lowest range (0.5 MHz – 1.5 MHz).  In a letter donated with the unit, he interacted with the engineers at the factory to alter the circuits so as improve the sensitivity in that range of the spectrum.

One of the trip-whistles installed in the loops area of the NRX reactor at Chalk River.  Each experimental loop had a separate whistle which was attached to an alarm panel.  The alarm panel could trigger a compressed air flow to the whistle when a fault occurred and the whistle would sound (all 3 tones simultaneously) to alert operators that an experimental facility had exceeded some critical parameter, typically overpressure or overtemperature, and had been automatically shut down.  In the present unit, which measures approximately 19 cm in length, the three whistle columns are 11, 9 and 8 cm in length.

A 1930s, Compur model, Zeiss Ikon camera that belonged to W.B. Lewis.  The camera, which operated with plates rather than roll film, when folded, measures 15 cm by 11 cm by 5 cm.  It came with a canvas case that also holds a number of film plates.  A label on the viewing hood at the rear of the camera indicates it was purchased from the Westminster Photographic Exchange Ltd. on Victoria Street in London, England.  The unit appears to have several exclusive features including a leveling bubble mounted above the lens.

Silver-plated wine chiller initially believed to have been presented to Maurice Dubras, who retired from service with AECL in 1990 after 25 years of service.  The chiller stands 23.5 cm tall and measures 22.5 cm across the top.  Maurice worked mainly in Human Resources both at Head Office in Ottawa and at Sheridan Park.  Initially it was not known what section of AECL Maurice worked in.  However, after some detective work he was located in Jersey, Channel Islands, where he was born and where he retired after 1990.  He was able to detail his work for AECL and disclosed that he had an identical chiller in his possession.  It is believed the one donated to the Society was a cast-off from the engravers because of a defect.

A collection of six, framed, photographs ranging in size from 10 cm by 15 cm to 20 cm by 25 cm depicting early scenes in Deep River.  Three from ~1946 show the Catholic Church on Hwy 17, the first Bank of Montreal and the Deep River Hospital.  Two others show the steam plant (originally on the corner of Deep River Road and Poplar) that supplied heat to many early buildings until the mid 1970s and finally an aerial photograph (with identification key) from about 1965.

A 58 cm by 69 cm, foam-board backed, photograph of the detection system from the Laser Plasma Beat-Wave Accelerator (LPBWA) that was operated at CRNL to investigate the generation of ultra-high accelerating gradients.  The main components of the experiment were a 10 MeV electron accelerator, a plasma chamber, two powerful lasers and an electron spectrometer.  This photograph is the second of two showing details of the electron spectrometer.

A 58 cm by 69 cm, foam-board backed, photograph of the detection system from the Laser Plasma Beat-Wave Accelerator (LPBWA) that was operated at CRNL to investigate the generation of ultra-high accelerating gradients. The main components of the experiment were a 10 MeV electron accelerator, a plasma chamber, two powerful lasers and an electron spectrometer. This photograph is the first of two showing details of the electron spectrometer.

Stone (jade?) disk (7.5 cm diameter, 1 cm thick) engraved on one side with a ¾ view of the Taiwan Research Reactor (TRR) and “1969  - 1973”, and with Chinese characters encircled by a decorative geometric design on the other side.  The disk is held firmly in a dark lacquered decorative wooden base with a carved vegetative motive encasing the edges of the bottom half of the disk.  The base measures 10 cm by 4.3 cm and has a white paper label on the bottom bearing the inscription:

TO T.G. Tennant

Compliments of:

C.A.E.C.  (Chinese Atomic Energy Council)

The memento was a gift to Thomas George Tennant, a CNRL nuclear operator who worked at the TRR in 1972.

The Chinese characters on the rear of the disk read - (outer circle) “To commemorate the completion of the Taiwan Research Reactor; Chinese Atomic Energy Council gift” and (central banner) “In appreciation of your many contributions” (Translation by O.T. Woo – retired CRNL employee)

The Taiwan Research Reactor, a similar reactor to NRX, was to become a point of major international concerns in later years with regard to safeguards and the potential non-civilian use of the plutonium in the used fuel elements.

An RCA 7046 photomultiplier tube.  This tube, with a nominal diameter of 12.5 cm, was a 14-stage unit that operated at a cathode-anode voltage of 3400 V.  The device is approximately 25 cm tall and had an amplification of about three million.  These photomultipliers were often coupled to scintillators (plastic or sodium-iodide based) which produced light pulses when struck by gamma rays.  The signals, proportional to the gamma ray energy, provided much of the early data on nuclear decay.  This particular unit was used in nuclear physics measurement at the University of Toronto.

A desk lamp based on a truncated CANFLEX fuel bundle located within a pressure tube.  The pressure tube is in turn nested inside a calandria tube.  Note the garter spring between the pressure tube and the calandria tube.  In a CANDU reactor the orientation of the fuel channels is horizontal.  The lamp stands 76 cm in height and the wooden base is 26 cm in diameter.  The truncated fuel bundle is 23.6 cm long (a standard CANDU bundle is 49.6 cm long) and measures a standard 9.9 cm in diameter.  Note that counting the center support, which is normally a fuel element, the fuel bundle consists of 43 elements.  The middle eight elements are 13 mm in diameter while the outer thirty-five are 11.5 cm in diameter. This memento was presented to A. Lane to celebrate his efforts in the development of the CANFLEX fuel.

Framed, 25 cm by 32 cm, cartoon presented to A. Lane by the Fuel Engineering Branch depicting many of the trials, experiments and final successes that went into the development of the CANFLEX fuel bundle.

A framed, 45.5 cm by 55 cm, photograph of a CANFLEX fuel bundle with the signatures of all the Fuel Materials Branch employees on the occasion in 1988 of A.D. Lane leaving the branch. 

A 31.5 cm, square, wooden memento with the metal depiction of the WR-1 reactor and the Whiteshell Laboratories' familiar water tower presented to A. Lane on his transfer to Chalk River in 1981 after a twelve-year career in the Fuel Technology Branch at the Whiteshell Nuclear Research Establishment.

Framed, 23 cm by 28 cm, colour photograph of A. Lane of CRNL being presented the AECL Discovery Award and lapel pin by AECL company President and CEO, Reid Morden.  The award was made for his contribution to the development of technology for critical heat flux enhancement in CANDU fuel bundles.

The Discovery Award plaque presented to A. Lane by AECL for his contribution to the development of technology for critical heat flux enhancement in CANDU fuel bundles.  Lane shared the award with three other CRNL co-workers who were also granted several patents for their work.  The framed award measures 26 cm by 32 cm.

A copy of Canadian Patent #2180545 awarded to AECL co-workers R. Sollychin, D.C. Groeneveld, A.D. Lane and J.E. Oldaker for “Critical Power Enhancement System for a Pressurized Fuel Channel Type Nuclear Reactor Using CHF Enhancement Appendages”.  The framed patent measures 39 cm by 29 cm.

A "Plaque of Appreciation" presented to A. Lane on his retirement in 1997 by the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) “In recognition of your valuable contribution to the CANFLEX fuel development being jointly implemented by KAERI and AECL”.  The Wolsung generating station in Korea operates four CANDU-6 units.  A. Lane and co-workers within AECL developed the CANFLEX fuel and hold the patent for it.  In the early 1990s KAERI joined AECL in a collaborative program to verify and qualify CANFLEX fuels.  The plaque measures 29 cm by 23 cm and the reverse features the names and signatures of then Korean researchers who worked on the program.

A 14.5 cm by 20 cm by 1.5 cm thick marble memento with an engraved plaque presented to A. Lane of AECL to commemorate his contributions to the Embalse Nuclear Power Project in Argentina.  The nuclear generating unit, installed at Rio Tercero, Cordoba in Argentina, was a CANDU 6 purchased from AECL.  Construction started in 1976 and the station went into commercial operation in 1984.  The plaque, signed by James Donnelly, President and CEO of AECL, was presented to Lane on the occasion of the station inauguration on 3 May 1993.

Electron accelerators, in addition to important industrial applications, can be used to produce an impressive form of “art”.  The acrylic block, 5 cm in diameter and 12.7 cm long, was placed in front of a beam of electrons from the I-10-1 (Industrial, 10MeV, 1kW) accelerator at the Whiteshell Laboratories. The energy of the electrons was chosen so that the beam penetrates roughly one-third the diameter of the cylinder before stopping and charging up the plastic.  (This penetration is the “range of the electrons”). 

Following the irradiation, which typically lasts several minutes, a sharp point, which is electrically grounded, is driven a short way into the plastic with a sharp blow from a grounded hammer and an electrical discharge, very similar to a lightning strike, occurs within the plastic.  The discharge paths show up as damage to the plastic and produce the beautiful “trees” seen – each one is unique.  The acrylic was then mounted in the wooden base that also houses a small-wattage bulb. 

Electron accelerators, in addition to important industrial applications, can be used to produce an impressive form of “art”.  The acrylic block; 15 cm square and 2.5 cm thick was placed in front of a beam of electrons. The energy of the electrons was chosen so that the beam penetrates roughly half the thickness of the material before stopping and charging up the plastic.  (This penetration is the “range of the electrons”).  The length of time required for the beam on the target (typically a few minutes) is dependent on the characteristics of the particular accelerator and of the specific plastic used.

Following the irradiation a sharp point, which is electrically grounded, is driven a short way into the plastic with a sharp blow from a grounded hammer and an electrical discharge, very similar to a lightning strike, occurs within the plastic.  The discharge paths show up as damage to the plastic and produce the beautiful “trees” seen – each one is unique.  The acrylic was then mounted in the wooden base that also houses a small-wattage bulb.  This unit was presented to B. Bigham from his colleagues in Accelerator Physics on his retirement in 1992.

This clock was presented to long-time employee Dr. J. W. (Warwick) Knowles on the occasion of his retirement from CRNL in 1985.  Knowles was one of the “original” pioneers of the nuclear industry having joined the National Research Council (NRC) and worked in the Montreal Labs. before moving to Chalk River.  At Chalk River he became a world-recognized expert in the high-precision measurement of high-energy gamma rays following the capture of neutrons in targets.  The clock, which measures 26 cm in diameter, depicts the many X, gamma and beta ray experiments he carried out in his long career.

Vintage, multifunction slide rule.  This unit, which measures 50 cm (20”) in length, came with a leather case and the original box.  Kueffel & Esser, a premier manufacturer of measurement and calculation devices began to produce high precision slide rules around 1870 and they were used extensively in scientific calculations.   They came in a wide variety of sizes – as short as 12.7 cm (5”) and as long as 127 cm (50”). This model could be used for a very wide range of arithmetic and geometric calculations. Most slide rules was rapidly replaced but digital scientific calculators in the mid-1970s.

Two retirement mementos presented to Ron Milks on the occasion of his retirement from the TASCC facility. The two “rods”, mounted on a wooden base, came from key components of the superconducting cyclotron.  The taller rod, which measures 15 cm in length and is 4 cm in diameter, was originally one of the adjustable iron rods installed from the bottom of the cyclotron yoke to allow changes in the magnetic field.  When manufactured, it must have been slightly outside the allowed tolerances and jammed in the yoke.  Removing it was one of Ron’s less pleasant assignments. The shorter item is one of the bearings from the helium liquefiers that also contributed to a number of operational problems.  The plaque reads “These “rods”, well-known to Ron, will remind him of the world’s most innovative superconducting cyclotron”. 

Desk lamp measuring 29.4 cm by 21 cm at the base with a 9 cm diameter model of the Chalk River superconducting cyclotron.  This memento was presented to Ron Milks, who worked for a number of years on the construction and commissioning of the cyclotron at TASCC, on the occasion of his retirement in 1993. The plaque reads “Presented to Ron Milks in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the TASCC facility, 1993”

A large, 69 cm by 91 cm, framed, watercolour, artistic impression of the TASCC superconducting cyclotron. Superimposed on the image of the cross-section of the RF accelerating structure and magnet coils is a stylized, semi-transparent image of the curved cyclotron dees.  The illustration was painted by Joanne Bigham, the daughter of Bruce Bigham, as a gift for her father.  Bruce, along with his-co-inventor Harvey Schneider, holds the patent for superconducting cyclotrons.

Preliminary model of the superconducting cyclotron to be used in the TASCC facility at CRNL.  This model was constructed to permit preliminary estimates of the shape and size of the RF accelerating structure.  The truncated superconducting coils that would later provide the required magnetic field to bend the beams were later incorporated in a design that included a large steel yoke.  This change in design allowed for a much more compact accelerator.  The large copper structures extending above and below the center plane represent the variable-frequency resonators that form part of the radiofrequency accelerating structure. On the model, which stands 38 cm tall, the coil outer diameter is 28 cm.

A model of the AGOR (Accelerateur Groningen-Orsay) superconducting cyclotron located at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.  The cyclotron, a joint Dutch-French effort, was modelled after the TASCC cyclotron located at CRNL.  J. Ormrod, the Project Manager of the Chalk River cyclotron, served on the Technical Evaluation Committee at AGOR and was presented with the model when the cyclotron went into service.  Contrary to the TASCC facility where the cyclotron acts as a booster for the tandem beam, in the AGOR cyclotron the beam is injected (at the bottom) at low energy from an ion source.  It exits at mid plane after acceleration. The model base is 10 cm in diameter and it stands 20 cm tall.

A framed, 29 cm by 37 cm, colour photograph of the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor as well as the Nuclear training Center at Rolphton Ontario.  The reactor, which produced the first nuclear-generated electricity, was rated at 25 MW.  The training center served to train many of the first technical operators for the Douglas Point and Pickering generating stations.  The reactor was shut down in 1987.

A 39 cm by 49 cm, hardboard-backed illustration of a SLOWPOKE-3 reactor installed in a remote location.  The SLOWPOKE-3 series was designed to have thermal output of 2-10 MW.  The version illustrated here is rated at 2 MW.  A test version also called the SLOWPOKE SDR (SLOWPOKE Demonstration Reactor) was constructed and tested extensively at the Whiteshell Laboratories of AECL. 

A 37.5 cm by 51 cm, hardboard-backed illustration of what a 2 MW SLOWPOKE reactor facility would look like.  The SLOWPOKE series of reactors were designed for a wide range of power starting with the lowest 2kW to 20kW models intended for neutron activation and radioisotope production and versions capable of several MW of power that could be used for heating purposes, especially in remote areas.

A 41cm by 51 cm, hardboard backed, schematic of a typical SLOWPOKE reactor installation.  The reactor sits at the bottom of a light-water pool which serves for cooling and shielding.

A SLOWPOKE-II reactor with a maximum power of 20kW was installed at the University of Alberta in 1978.  It was used there largely for radionuclide production and for neutron activation analysis and generally operated at a power of about 2 kW.  The reactor was decommissioned during 2017-2018 and the control console was donated to the Society, arriving in November 2018.  The console is 79 cm wide by 179 cm in length and stands 117 cm above the floor. 

A mounted, 27 cm by 33 cm, colour photograph of members of the biological science group at CRNL around the year 2000. See associated photograph – artifact 2018-231

A mounted, 28 cm by 36 cm, colour photograph of the “Ron Mitchell” group in the biological science building at CRNL.  It is unknown when the photograph was taken but it is believed to have been around the year 2000.  Persons in the photograph, where known, are identified on the reverse.

A large (102 cm by 122 cm), mounted, bilingual, poster promoting the use of neutron beams as a way of gaining information on the properties of a wide range of materials.

Top Flight XL golf balls were irradiated with the 10 MeV electron beam from the Industrial-10MeV- 1KW (I-10-1) accelerator at the Whiteshell Laboratories.  They were mainly produced as a promotional item for the laboratories to familiarize the public with irradiated items in society.  Irradiation does have some small effect on the materials in the ball and there are claims that the ball does in fact bounce somewhat higher.  As the accompanying handout from the Public Affairs group at the laboratories state “the atomic golf ball will certainly take nothing away from your game”.  Claims to improvement of the game remain to be proven.

MDS Nordion, the world’s largest supplier of Co-60, undertook a promotion program for its products and irradiated standard golf balls to promote the safe use of isotopes. The Company, located in Kanata, ON was formerly AECL Commercial Products Division before privatization. As indicated on the box labels, the Co-60 irradiation will produce some changes in the latex core of the ball but claims as to improved performance have not been scientifically proven.

Topaz, as naturally found, occurs in a number of light colours. Most commonly it is clear. Electron beams in the 10-12 MeV energy range can be used to irradiate topaz and induce atomic displacements and “colour centers”. The display shows “raw” topaz in the top row, followed by crudely cut facets on the second row, a clear and polished gem in the third row as well as one that has received some irradiation treatment to reach the “sky-blue” colour. The fourth row shows two examples of “London-blue” gems, the most commercially-desired colour. The photograph also shows beryl, which can be similarly coloured, but in this case the colour centers produce an orange colouring. To induce the “sky-blue” or “London-blue” colours desired by the jewellery market, white or colourless topaz requires a massive irradiation dose in the range of 30-40 x 10⁶ Gy. The powerful electron beams of the PHELA and later IMPELA accelerators at CRNL were used to irradiate large quantities of topaz under commercial contracts.

A bright orange, 39 cm diameter, platter that shows a significant degree of radioactivity due to uranium salts used in the glaze.  These salts produced brilliant colours in the glazes.  This particular platter does not have a symbol indicating the manufacturer but similar platters known as “Fiesta-ware” appeared on the market especially before 1944.  At that point uranium became treated as a strategic material and disappeared from the consumer market, although some glazes were manufactured in the 1960s with depleted uranium.  An article about activity measurements from a similar platter was published in AECL’s Chalk Talk in July 1981 (Volume 3 No 7).

A 38 cm by 60 cm, mounted depiction of the Tandem and Superconducting Cyclotron (TASCC) facility at Chalk River.  Beams generated in one of the ion sources are accelerated in the MP tandem.  They can then be conveyed to a number of experimental rooms or can be injected into the cyclotron where they can be stripped to a higher charge state and accelerated to a much higher energy before being directed to an experimental area.

A 46 cm by 53 colour diagram, at midplane, of the superconducting cyclotron of the Tandem and Superconducting Cyclotron (TASCC) accelerator installed at CRNL for nuclear physics experiments.  The cyclotron was constructed by the Accelerator Physics Branch at CRNL and then moved and installed in the TASCC facility where it acted as a “booster” for the beams injected from the MP tandem accelerator.  It could accelerate a wide variety of ions and the appropriate magnetic field could be adjusted by a feature unique to this cyclotron – namely the change in position of iron rods.  This was a concept borrowed from the control of neutron flux and power in CANDU reactors which is also achieved with the use of control rods.

A foamboard mounted, 32 cm by 53 cm, artist’s cut-away view of the prototype Industrial Materials Pulsed Electron Accelerator (IMPELA) which was constructed in Bldg. 610 in CRNL in 1986. This electron-beam, linear accelerator was the forerunner of a number of 10 MeV, 50 kW accelerators sold for industrial applications by the Accelerator Business Unit. 

In the early 1980’s, the IAEA was pressured to show that used reactor fuel was not being diverted for weapons production. Reactors had to be “safeguarded” as was the terminology for a system for IAEA inspectors to detect fuel diversion. American interests tried to claim that an on-power fuelled reactor (CANDU) could not be “safeguarded”.  Consequently, the Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) received funding for developing a safeguards system and contracted AECL for the technical work. This included counters to tabulate each bundle that entered and left the core, cameras to photograph the fuelling operation and sealed cages to detect removal of stored spent fuel.

The item here, whose base measures 15 cm by 9.5 cm, was presented to Dr. Andrew Stirling who directed the technical program.  The smaller diameter device is a Geiger counter holder for counting bundles while the larger diameter item is a seal that would be attached to the spent fuel cages.  The seal contains a wire coil.  A special tool with an ultrasonic transducer was attached to the seal under water and produced a unique signature.  If tampered with, the signature changed and could thus be detected.  Mr. Victor Allen designed the bundle counter.

A replica of the trefoil fuel carriage used to test fuel pencils in the NRX reactor loops.  The assembly consists of three, full length (495 mm), fuel pencils mounted in a jig that could be located in one of the loops to carry out various fuel and sheath performance experiments.  The entire assembly, which was presented to F. Blackstein on his retirement from AECL, is mounted on a 71 cm by 4 cm wooden base.

A copy of the “thinker” theme on a retirement memento presented to F. Blackstein on his retirement from AECL.  Blackstein had served as AECL chair of the Patents Committee from 1975 to 1985. Persons awarded patents were given a small lapel pin with the thinker image.  The assembly sits on a 23 cm by 13 wooden base.

A 17.5 cm high by 14.5 wide photoetch diagram starting at the top with ZEEP (1945) and progressing in a clockwise manner with illustrations of the next fifteen members of the CANDU family that came in operation during the long (1949-1986) career of J.H. (Harry) Collins.  The unit was presented to Collins, who served in the “reactors” area of CRNL in numerous important roles, on his retirement.  The aluminum photoetch diagram is bonded to a steel backing bent to form a stand-up unit.  Two standard ~2 cm AECL “Flying A” lapel pins, bonded to magnets, can be located at any desired locations on the unit.

J. H. “Harry“ Collins was a long service  (1949-1986) employee of AECL at CRNL who served in a number of important management roles, mostly associated with the operation of the NRX and NRU reactor.  On retirement, he was presented with a digital clock with featured two short sections of reactor fuel rods – one a short section of 4.3 cm diameter, natural-uranium metal, NRX fuel rod and the second a section of 6.3 cm diameter, natural-uranium metal fuel rod from NRU.  The overall base of the memento is 33 cm by 15 cm. Uranium metal was used in the first loadings of both NRU and NRX.  This gave way to uranium oxide in the mid-1960s.

A Model AEG 50 Machlett X-ray tube.  The tube is still suspended in its light-weight shipping crate, a square 25 cm box that is 81 cm in length.  The AEG model was used widely in the 1940-50s as an intense source of X-rays for the study of radiation effects on numerous materials, including biological materials.  The label indicates this unit had a tungsten (W) anode.  The tube is 38 cm in length and has a diameter of 5.7 cm. Operating characteristics were typically 50kV at 50 mA. It is believed this unit came as a spare from the Montreal Laboratories   The markings on the side of the crate read DOE 4/CR 2-E-1018 which may indicate a purchase order number. It is not known where at CRNL a low-energy X-ray unit was used.  A much more powerful 2MV X-ray unit know as Dumbo was used for biological effects research at CRNL.  It arrived from the Montreal Laboratories where it was initially used with a beryllium target to generate neutrons.

An Electrodata Model 53170 photo-diode reader used on the Datatron 205 electronic computer to read paper tape that has had programming holes suitable punched into it.  The reading system consists of a bulb whose light in reflected by a mirror to then view the passing tape.  Holes in the tape then are registered by photodiodes below the tape and are converted into computer code.  The unit measures 41 cm wide by 23 cm high by 27 deep and was housed in the computer control console. (See Artifact 2018-215)

The Datatron, also known as the Electrodata 205, Burroughs or Bendix was the first electronic computer at CRNL. Arriving in 1957, it served until 1964 when it was “disposed of.”  It was later located in the storage facility of a retired AECL employee who collects used scientific equipment.  The mainframe of the computer unfortunately resided outdoors and has deteriorated badly.  The Control Console was, however, housed indoors and has survived in reasonable shape. 

The control desk measures 1.52 m by 0.76 m and sits 0.76 m above the floor.  The main display unit measures 86 cm by 22 cm and contains more than 180 indicator bulbs (in five registers).  The relatively small input “keyboard”, connected to the console with a multi-strand cable, measures 15 cm by 17 cm.  Viewed front the front, the right-hand rectangular opening housed the paper-tape reader (see artifact 2018-216).  The corresponding left-hand opening may have once housed the paper-tape punch unit.   

At the rear of the console below the surface of the desktop, two large, hinged panels contain a series of electronic components including a number of mercury-wetted relays.  Several versions of this control module were made famous by their usage in a large number of science fiction and space-related movies where their arrays of blinking lights were an audience-impressing feature. 

A Type 353 DuMont oscilloscope camera mount fitted with a Type 2620 Polaroid camera.  The camera lens is an Alphax 75 mm, f1.9 model produced by the Wallensak-DuMont Group of Rochester U.S.A.  These recording units were invaluable in recording wave forms and events viewed on oscilloscopes before the advent of oscilloscopes capable of digitizing an oscilloscope trace.  Focus on the screen was achieved by manual adjustment while viewing through the monocular viewing port.  A shutter could then be slid across the viewing port to prevent interfering light.

Various versions of the cameras were produced.  Many had a binocular viewing port and later models had an electronically controlled camera shutter that would be triggered by an event that simultaneously produced a trace on the oscilloscope screen.  With the version shown here, photographs could be easily obtained of repetitive waveforms or on a “catch-by guess” basis only for irregular pulses.  Photographs were available almost immediately with the standard “instant” Polaroid films.

A vintage two-pen chart recorder of the type used widely in the scientific and industrial community starting at the end of the 19^th century.  The Bristol Manufacturing Company was established in 1889 and produced a wide variety of circular and linear recorders for accurate measurement of temperature, flow rates, humidity, pressure etc.  This model, which measures 48 cm wide by 39 cm high by 38 cm deep and is believed to have been manufactured in the 1950s, uses rolls of paper with a 28 cm wide recoding area.  Each of the two pens records a signal in the 0-50 mV range.  It is unknown where specifically at CRNL this unit was installed and used.

A coffee mug for members of the Chalk River Technicians and Technologists Union, bearing the crest of the Union.

A coffee mug produced to celebrate the completion of the construction of the Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Facility (NFFF) at CRNL (Building 405) in 1990.  The new facility was commissioned to establish a wide range of fuel fabrication procedures including: plate fuel fabrication, fuel powder processing, ultrasonic testing, x-ray inspection a gamma scanning.

A coffee mug produced to celebrate the completion of the construction of the Biological Research Facility at Chalk River in 1996.  The 1600 m² building was constructed to support state-of-the-art animal (rodent) and animal tissue-based research.

A Leeds and Northrup Catalogue number 8632-C Optical Pyrometer.  There were a large number of these pyrometers manufactured with slightly different temperature ranges.  The “C” series were calibrated for the Celsius scale.  The instrument box measures 18cm by 18 cm by 25 cm while the measuring head, which is attached via a cable, is approximately 30 cm in length.  The battery-operated instrument operates on the principle of passing a current through a high-resistance wire in the head.  The observer then looks through the head at the wire and simultaneously at the material being observed and adjusts the current until the temperature (and hence the colour) of the wire and the temperature of the material in question match.  At this point the outline of the wire disappears – hence the term “disappearing wire pyrometer”.  Most of the models developed by Leeds and Northrup covered three temperature ranges.  The range desired was chosen by rotating the end of the measuring head to L, H or Hx.  Labels and writing on the instrument indicate that this particular instrument was used at the Whiteshell laboratories in Lab B-15. It is not clear when the instrument was manufactured but similar models were manufactured in the 1950-1960 era.

A 9 cm high aluminum model representing the superconducting cyclotron that was built as a part of the TASCC (Tandem And SuperConducting Cyclotron) facility built at CRNL for nuclear physics research.  The actual magnet measured 3.36 m across the octagonal faces and weighed 170 tons.  The holes in the model represent the trim rods, a unique feature of the Chalk River machine.  These rods were used to adjust the profile of the magnetic field to allow a wide array of ions to be accelerated.  The two short pipes at the mid-plane represent the input and outlet beam lines to the cyclotron.  This model was one of three presented to physicists from the Accelerator Physics Branch who worked on the project and who retired in 1992.  The TASCC facility was defunded in 1997 and was dismantled and sold as scrap metal. 

A 1950s vintage Hughes-Owens Model 1771 slide rule used for many scientific calculations.  This version, which measures 30 cm in length, came complete with a protective leather case.  The first handheld scientific calculator, the HP-35, was introduced to the public by Hewlett-Packard in 1972 and quickly replaced the slide rule.  Until that point most scientific and engineering calculations that required no more that three-digit accuracy were carried out using slide rules. Slide rules, whose principle of operation is based on logarithms (logs for short), allowed rapid multiplication and division operations.  The Model 1771 model was a fairly basic model – physically larger models allowing higher precision and often produced with more scales to extend the types of calculations to those including geometric functions such as sines and cosines (and others) were also made.

A Model 5430 Leeds & Northrup galvanometer.  This was a “second-generation”, electrical-measurements instrument, developed about 1960.  “First-generation” galvanometers used mechanical movements and mirrors to detect small deflections produced by currents in a magnet coil.  This instrument would have been used primarily for measuring electrical resistance in circuits.  It would have been particularly useful in locating shorts to ground in the field by helping to identify the distance to a short when the resistance per unit length of wire is known. The galvanometer is housed in a wooden box that measures 22 cm by 19 cm by 16 cm in height.

A 5 cm diameter bronze medallion from the Bettis Atomic Laboratory in a 11 cm by 8 cm paper holder.  The Bettis laboratory is a US-government laboratory, operated under contract by Westinghouse.  It is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and developed Oak Ridge National Laboratory's original design of the pressurized water reactor (PWR) for operational naval use. It built the nuclear propulsion plants for the first U.S. nuclear submarines and surface ships.  Some early tests of these reactor fuels were done at the NRX reactor is Chalk River and it is assumed the medallion was presented to CRNL staff at that time.

The nameplate from the first electronic (vacuum-tube based) digital computer used at CRNL.  The computer, acquired in 1957 was known by various names, the Datatron, the Burroughs 205 or the Electrodata 205 and consisted of a large (~ 3 m long) cabinet containing a data entry panel, a large number of plug-in, electron-tube based modules and a large memory drum. It also had a separate motor-generator unit to supply the power required.  The nameplate, which identifies the CRNL unit as having Serial Number 149, was removed from the mainframe which has been sitting neglected outdoors near a collector's storage sheds since the early 1960s.  The aluminum plate measures 11 cm by 8 cm.

A colour, aerial photograph of the CRNL site taken in the mid-1960s.  The overall size of the matted picture is 56 cm by 51 cm.

A standard, 30 cm wide, metal, car-licence format, artifact celebrating the 25^th anniversary Atomic Energy of Canada Limited Whiteshell Research Laboratories.   The laboratories, started in 1963, were situated at Pinawa, Manitoba. 

A framed, 53 cm by 43 cm, photo-collage presented to D. Watson on his retirement December 1974.  Watson joined AECL in March 1948 and served on the Senior Management Committee in Ottawa from 1963 until his retirement.  The collage includes photographs of various AECL sites and some of his activities.  At the center is a photograph of the house in Deep River (33 Hillcrest) where he and his family lived when his service with AECL began.

A Documator DL2 microfilm reader. A versatile microfilm reader used for the organization of a wide range of microfilms.  It was used at both the Chalk River and the Whiteshell laboratories to record/review and organize the large amount of data collected by the groups researching drill-core samples from potential. sites for high-level waste repositories.

A Zeiss Jena Amplival polarizing microscope. This polarizing  microscope was used by AECL, and later CNL, personnel to obtain qualitative and quantitative analysis of  the materials extracted in drill cores from various sites under consideration for an underground repository for high level nuclear wastes. 

A Leitz 12 Pol S fluorescence microscope.  This fluorescence microscope was used by AECL, and later CNL, personnel to study and identify the minerals extracted in drill cores from various sites under consideration for an underground repository for high level nuclear wastes. 

A set of Nikon Stereomicroscope attachments.  These attachments, designed to fit a wide range of Nikon speciality microscopes, expand the capabilities of the instruments.  Several different Nikon microscopes were used  at the Chalk River and Whiteshell laboratories by researchers examining rock samples from drill-cores.

A Nikon Model SMZ-2T stereomicroscope.  This microscope was used by AECL personnel studying the drill core samples extracted from various sites under consideration for a underground repository for high-level nuclear wastes.  The unit was also used to examine deposits at the Underground Research Laboratory at Whiteshell.

Two, 12.5 cm high, pewter mugs, one left-handed the other right-handed, presented to D. Watson on his retirement in December 1974.  Watson joined AECL in March 1948 and served on the Senior Management Committee in Ottawa from 1963 until his retirement.  The mugs bear the signatures of a large number of people who played leading roles in the management of AECL during the 1960 to 1974 period.  Visible on the left-handed mug are the signatures of J.L. Gray, L.R. Haywood, A.M. Aikin, R.P. Errington, E. Deslauriers, D. Watson (and three others that have not been deciphered).  Signatures on the right-handed mug include those of J.S. Foster, R. Wright, A.J. Mooradian, R.G. Hart, F.W. Gilbert, W.B. Lewis, L.G. Elliott (plus one more that has not been deciphered.)

A 16.5 cm wide, acrylic-based, pen holder produced to commemorate the joint United Kingdom (AEA) - Canada (AECL) – USA (AEC) cooperation on nuclear development.  The article is dated May 1967 and is believed to have been produced for a joint meeting of the three atomic energy agencies representing each of the countries.  The exact date and location of the meeting are unknown.

Three pieces of acrylic, two of them cylinders and the third rectangular, displaying the discharge pattern or “tree” produced by irradiating the acrylic with an electron beam. Electron accelerators, in addition to important industrial applications, can be used to produce an impressive form of “art”.  Lucite blocks, either rectangular or cylindrical, are placed in front of a scanned electron beam.  The energy of the electrons that strike the material is chosen so that the beam penetrates roughly half the thickness for flat material or one-third for cylindrical material before stopping and charging up the plastic.  (This penetration is the “range of the electrons”). 

The length of time required for the beam on the target (typically a few minutes) is dependent on the characteristics of the particular accelerator and of the specific plastic used. This is often found by using a smaller test piece.  Following the irradiation a sharp point, which is electrically grounded, is driven a short way into the plastic with a sharp blow from a grounded hammer and an electrical discharge, very similar to a lightning strike, occurs within the plastic.  The discharge paths show up as damage to the plastic and produce the beautiful “trees” seen – each one is unique.  Too long an exposure of the plastic to a scanned beam can result in a spontaneous discharge to the nearest ground points and will spoil the appearance of the tree; too short a time results in very fine lines that are barely visible.

A collection of five zircaloy fuel element sheaths of the type used in CANDU fuel bundles.  Four of the sheaths have an outside diameter of 15.2 mm, the size used in the Pickering A reactors, while the fifth has an outside diameter of 13.1 mm and is the size used in the Bruce A reactors.  One of the four Pickering size sheaths has been completed with end caps, bearing pads and element spacers. (It also has had a “filler” added to simulate the weight of the uranium fuel pellets.)  The completed fuel element measures 495 mm in length.  It has three zircaloy bearing pads welded to the sheath, one in the middle and two centered 50 mm from each end of the element.  The pads are about 30 mm in length.  At the middle of the element, in addition to the bearing pad, three shorter (~9 mm) zircaloy spacer pads, placed 90 degrees apart, are located around the circumference of the element.  They are shorter than the bearing pads and are welded at an angle of about 30 degrees relative to the element axis. The spacer pads maintain the proper spacing to the adjacent elements.  In the Pickering A reactors, 28 of these elements are used to form a fuel bundle and 12 bundles are used in each of the 390 fuel channels.

An AECL-produced handout representing a typical CANDU fuel pellet.  The pellets of uranium oxide typically are just under 1 cm in diameter and are 1-1.5 cm in length depending on the particular fuel design.  The handout indicates that a single pellet in a CANDU reactor can produce the energy equivalent to that produced by burning 807 kilograms of coal or 677 l of oil.  The handout measures 15 cm by 17.5 cm.

A 10 cm by 8 cm by 2.3 cm thick acrylic block produced by Canadian General Electric to illustrate the process used in producing the cylindrical fuel pellets used in fuel elements in CANDU reactors. The process begins with uranium ore which is converted to yellowcake and supplied to a refinery where it is processed to generate the uranium dioxide pellets used in the fuel elements. The energy released in a reactor from one uranium pellet is equal to the energy that can be obtained by burning 320 kg of coal. Typical fuel pellets in a CANDU are just under 1 cm in diameter and 1 cm long.

A 29.5 cm by 23.5 cm, framed, black and white photograph of Jim Geiger making adjustments on the equipment in the laser magnetic resonance (LMR) laboratory located in Bldg. 330 at Chalk River.  LMR spectroscopy was a new field of studies developed in the 1980s for high-resolution studies of the transient paramagnetic properties of atoms, radicals and molecular ions.

A colour photograph, mounted on a 30 cm by 36 cm acrylic sheet, of a Pickering A calandria approaching completion at Canadian Vickers Co. Ltd. in Montreal.  In the photograph 378 of the 390 fuel channels have been installed. The first four units at the Pickering Generating Station (known also as Pickering A) all had 390 fuel channels.  In units 5-8 (known also as Pickering B) the number of fuel channels was reduced to 380.

A tritium-powered EXIT sign where illumination is produced by radio luminescence (beta particles from the decay of 12.3 y half-life tritium striking a phosphor).  The sign, which measures 21 cm high by 32 cm wide by 4 cm thick, was manufactured by Tri-Vision International, Montreal, and has a stated expiration date of 1995. 

The date of manufacture is unknown but the Tri-Vision website states that the company was incorporated in 1986. When constructed, the illuminating unit contained 25 Curies of tritium.  It is assumed that the expiration date was dictated by the decrease in illumination as the tritium decays.  Information labels state the unit was a Model 2040 with a Serial Number of D40002. 

The sign consists of three components – the illumination unit, an open-faced metal container and a removable, bilingual, plastic sheet with the words EXIT and SORTIE.

A 30 cm by 37 cm framed photograph of the Nuclear Physics Branch staff at CRNL in 1990. Individuals are identified on the photographs. The Branch ceased to exist in 1997 as the result of the decision by the Federal Government to have AECL narrow its research mission.

A framed, 28 cm by 23 cm, photograph of the Nuclear Power Design Group labeled “In the beginning, Chalk River” and “ In the beginning …Summer 1953”.   Directly below the center of the photo are the letters CAPD.  This refers to Canadian General Electric’s “Civilian Atomic Power Development”.   A Canadian Nuclear Society collection of historic photos has been located that also displays this photo.  It is unknown if the group was located at Chalk River or Peterborough at the time the photograph was taken.

The Jan Amos Komensky medal was presented to J.A.L. Robertson by the Czech Academy of Science as the senior Canadian representative at a Nuclear Energy Conference in Prague in 1963. The bronze medal, which is 8 cm in diameter, was designed by Josef Bajak. It was presented in a 11.5 cm square by 2.5 cm high, red fabric box. Jan Amos Komensky was a 17th century philosopher, pedagogue and theologian from Moravia who is considered by many to be the father of modern education.

The William J. Kroll Zirconium medal presented to J.A.L. Robertson in 1993.  The 8 cm diameter, 1 cm thick, zirconium medal is presented in a 15 cm square, 8.5 cm tall wooden case.  William J. Kroll was a renowned Luxenbourgish metallurgist famous for inventing the Kroll Process for extracting metallic titanium from ores.  He later went on to do pioneering work with zirconium.

The WB Lewis award is awarded annually by the Canadian Nuclear Society “To recognize a Canadian scientist or engineer who has demonstrated a level of technical competence and accomplishment in the field of nuclear science and engineering as exemplified by the late Dr. W.B. Lewis during his involvement in the Canadian nuclear energy programme, 1946 to 1973.”  The bronze medal, 9 cm in diameter, was awarded to J.A.L. Robertson in 1980.  It was presented in a 13 cm by 8 cm by 6.5 cm high black-walnut box.

A mat-backed, black and white, display photograph featuring the historic plaque unveiled at CRNL in honour the ZEEP reactor. The photograph measures 39 cm by 46 cm. AECL photograph 5403-5A.

The associated photograph shows the unveiling ceremony which took place June, 1966. Shown L_R in that photo are C.J. McKenzie (Former President of AECL), W.B. Lewis and The Honourable Len Hopkins, MP

A mat-backed, black and white, display photograph showing the on-line fueling machine at the Nuclear Power demonstration (NPD) reactor at Rolphton, ON.  NPD was the first CANDU to achieve on-line refueling.  The artifact measures 51 cm by 41 cm.  AECL photograph 3020-3.

 A mat-backed, black and white, display photograph taken at the official opening of the Nuclear Power demonstration (NPD) reactor at Rolphton, ON in 1962.  The artifact measures 51 cm by 41 cm.  The speaker at the podium is J.L. Gray, President of AECL.  Immediately to his left is W.B. Lewis and next to him is The Honorable John Robarts, Premier of Ontario.  AECL photograph 3237-25.

A mat-backed black and white display photograph showing the graph plotted at the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor during the first approach to criticality in 1962.  The artifact measures 51 cm by 61 cm.  AECL photograph 6206-3058-59

A mat-backed black and white display photograph showing the personnel in the Control Room of Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor during the first approach to criticality in 1962.  The artifact measures 51 cm by 61 cm.  AECL photograph 6206-3060-2.

A mat-backed, black and white photograph of the calandria for the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor on its arrival at Rolphton, Ontario.  The artifact measures 41 cm by 51 cm.  AECL photograph 3237-25

A cut-away model of the ZED-2 reactor given to Dave Walker, the long-time lead researcher on the reactor, on his retirement in 1980.  The model also functioned as a digital clock. The square wooden base of the model measures 15 cm on a side while the “graphite” section stands 11 cm tall and is 10 cm in diameter.  The ZED-2 reactor was located in Bldg. 145 at CRNL.  It was a low power (typically 5-120 watts), tank-type reactor that first achieved criticality in 1960.

Two aluminum replicas of the fuel pins used in NRX reactor at CRNL for the production of molybdenum 99, a fission product from which technetium 99 is produced.  The latter is widely used in medical diagnostics.  The ribbed part of the full scale pencils is 15.9 cm and the overall length is 16.7 cm (nominal 6 ½ inches).  The diameter measures 12.5 mm (nominal ½ inch).

A surveyor’s target whose specific use has not been determined.  The tool itself measures 65 cm in length and is housed in a 69 cm long by 15 cm wide by 10 cm high wooden box.  One end of the tool has a clear, paint-free, smooth, metal surface for pivoting on the top of a point while the other has a precision level for determining the vertical plane accurately.  Two dark lines are engraved approximately 1 mm apart along the length of the upper surface.  There are no indicators on the instrument or on the wooden box as to the manufacturer of the instrument or as to which part of CRNL it served.

A set of 38 acrylic “French Curves” used for drafting smooth irregular curvatures.  The curves, which measure from 8 cm in length to 60 cm, are contained in a two-layer wooden box.  The box is 68 cm long, 18 cm wide and 6 cm in height and has markings that indicate the artifact is a 1864S model of curves manufactured by the famous Keuffel & Esser (K&E) company.  The bottom of the box also indicates it was the property of the Applied Mathematics Branch at CRNL. 

An 83 cm long T-square used on drafting tables to provide a horizontal reference point for large drawings. This unit is a Model 2088-30 manufactured by the Kueffel and Esser Company who manufactured a wide range of scientific drafting and surveying equipment starting in the 1800s.

A 35 cm by 28 cm colour photograph of the staff at Douglas Point on 19 June 1984.  The significance of the date is uncertain but the station which entered service on 26 September 1968 was officially shut down six weeks before, on 05 May 1984.  An accompanying sheet identifies the personnel in the photograph.

A framed, 34 cm by 31 cm, colour photograph of the Douglas Point Nuclear Generating Station presented to Julian Bayley in 1980 marking his service as an Operator there before moving on to the Pickering NGS.  The reverse of the photograph is signed by his many co-workers.

A framed, 35 cm by 28 cm, colour photograph of the Darlington “A” Nuclear Generating Station presented to Julian Bayley to commemorate his 35 years of service with Ontario Hydro.  The plaque reads “J. Bayley, Darlington NGS A, 1954-1989”.

A memento given to Julian Bayley by the Mechanical Maintenance group at the Darlington Generating Station marking his 35 years of service with Ontario Hydro.  It consists of a 10 cm tall stainless steel flask, with a “stopper”, mounted on a 26.5 cm by 17 cm wooden base.  The “flask” is a replica of a standard, plastic, disposable, urine-sample bottle used by all Atomic Research Workers (ARWs) who might have been exposed to tritiated heavy water after maintenance work, or even to submit monthly as required for all ARWs regardless of work performed.

The tops were sized like an old-style glass milk bottles and used similar paper lids with finger grabs used in such milk bottles. The flasks were routinely used for urinalysis for other bioactive radiological agents such as Carbon 14 (occurring in the annulus gas surrounding the calandria tubes), or from airborne/waterborne radioiodines from fuel failures. Analysis was done simultaneously.

A large (114 cm by 66 cm) framed cartoon with photo-inserts of the personnel who played major management roles in the construction and commissioning of the Gentilly 1 (G-1) Boiling Water Reactor.  This cartoon was presented to the team leader, Les Haywood, after full power operation of the reactor had been achieved.  The dedication plaque reads “Presented to L.R. Haywood March 22^nd 1971 from the Gentilly Team”.

A large (152 cm long by 61 cm wide by 43 cm high), two-level, oval-shaped, glass-topped, wooden coffee table presented to Les Haywood “In recognition of his contribution to Canada’s Nuclear program” in December 1974.  The table is inset with six photo-metal plaques, four of which show depictions of the many reactors in the Canadian nuclear program starting from ZEEP and continuing to Pickering B and Bruce B which were still in the construction stage.  Included in this grouping were also reactors outside Canada that had large Canadian input.  A fifth plaque depicts one of the heavy-water plants in the program. 

A model of the “atom” marker installed at the entrance to Deep River to commemorate the 50th year of the town's  founding.  This model, which stands 25 cm tall and sits on a 23 cm by 15 cm base, was given to Les Haywood on his retirement from AECL.  The label on the model indicates that the upper layer of the base was constructed using low-activity uranium ore from Blind River ON.

A framed colour photograph of the Bruce A Generating Station presented to Julian Bayley on the occasion of his move to the Bruce B site.  The reverse side of the picture displays the signatures of many of the employees he had worked with.  The picture measures 39 cm by 32 cm.

Framed colour photograph of the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) site on the Ottawa River at Rolphton. ON. The artifact measures 27 cm by 21 cm.

A 4 cm diameter, 1 cm long slice of the fuel element from the Zero Energy Reactor for Lattice Investigations and New Assemblies (ZERLINA) located at Mumbai in India.  The nominal 100 W reactor is the Indian equivalent of ZED-2 at Chalk River.  The sample of unirradiated natural uranium is enclosed in a 10 cm by 10 cm plastic sandwich that measures 2.5 cm in thickness.

A high-magnification, 20 cm by 20 cm, photo-metal image of a polished segment of reactor fuel mounted on a 30 cm by 30 cm wooden base. The right-hand photograph shows a magnified view of the scale, indicated on the lower left-hand corner of the main image.

A framed (37 cm by 48 cm) photograph featuring an electron microscope photograph of a polished specimen of reactor fuel combined with a commemorative plaque and the signatures of the members of the Fuel Materials Branch. The plaque reads “Ross MacEwan, Head, Fuel Materials Branch, 1970-1978”.

An 8:1 linear scale model of a General Atomics High Temperature Gas Reactor HTGR fuel element.  The hexagonal cross-section model is 9.6 cm long and measures 4.4 cm across from face to face.  The artifact was handed out to delegates to a seminar held in honour of Peter Fortescu on June 17, 1978 in San Diego, California.  See notes below on Fortescu.

A 7.5 cm diameter, 3 cm tall semi-hemisphere of plastic in which a sample of uranium ore is cast.  The notations indicate that the samples were made by Denison Mines Limited, a large company that has supplied much of the uranium for many CANDU reactors.  The location of the mine from which the sample came is unknown nor is the date it was mined. The sample was packaged in a small paper box.

An 18 cm by 10 cm, layered-plastic plate bonded to a 20.5 cm by 12.5 cm piece of 1 cm thick, machined, aluminum and presented to Julian Bayley in 1980 for his service at the Douglas Point Nuclear Generating Station.  The significance of the highlighted green component is unknown but probably was related to specific components of the station with which he was involved.  Julian was one of the early Operators at NPD who later worked in turn at Douglas Point, Bruce, and finally at Darlington N.G.S.

A 2 cm square by 5 cm long sample of graphite from the world’s first reactor, the Chicago Pile (CP-1) which heralded the start of the nuclear fission age on 02 December 1942 at Stagg Field, the University of Chicago.  The sample is cast into a clear plastic block which measures 9.5 cm in length and has a cross-section measuring 6.5 cm by 3.5 cm.

A 91 cm by 211 cm banner promoting the Canadian Institute for Neutron Scattering (CINS). 

A 71 cm by 98 cm poster describing the use of the DUALSPEC neutron diffractometer, located in the NRU reactor, as a Polarized Beam Triple Axis Crystal Spectrometer.

A 55 cm by 71 cm poster depicting the use of the DUALSPEC neutron spectrometer located in NRU as a High Resolution Powder Diffractometer (HRPD).

A foamboard-backed, 81 cm by 102 cm, poster depicting the use of neutron diffraction to obtain residual stress maps, measure texture evolution in welded plates and to obtain the temperature distribution in such complex structures as a gas turbine engine.

A 84 cm wide by 160 cm tall, self-standing, poster describing a Chalk River-based facility for testing packages and containers for transporting radioactive materials. The right-hand photograph is an expansion of the information on the poster.

The WB Lewis award is awarded annually by the Canadian Nuclear Society “To recognize a Canadian scientist or engineer who has demonstrated a level of technical competence and accomplishment in the field of nuclear science and engineering as exemplified by the late Dr. W.B. Lewis during his involvement in the Canadian nuclear energy programme, 1946 to 1973.”  The bronze medal, 9 cm in diameter, was awarded to A.J. Mooradian in 1980.

A 68 cm high by 95 cm wide, framed poster announcing the awarding of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physics to Clifford G. Shull and Bertrand N. Brockhouse for their work in neutron scattering.  The poster appears to be a publication of the Swedish Academy of Science.

A collection of portable personal dosimeters (pencil chambers) together with three battery-based charging units.  The dosimeters, which are direct reading, measure 11 cm in length while the battery-based charging units are 9 cm wide.  No indication as to the manufacturer nor the voltage and type of batteries used is indicated on the charging units.  The battery was inserted on the left-hand end while the dosimeter port was on the right-hand side.  A thumb-wheel is used to set the amount of charge on the anode.  The range of the dosimeters varies with some reading a maximum of 0.2 R while others have a maximum of 0.5 R.

A stylized “beer-mug” with the main body manufactured of spare, NPD, aluminum (6061?) alloy, calandria tubing with a 3 cm long zircaloy-2 segment of pressure tube for a base.  The item was manufactured by the NPD Reactor Maintenance Team to commemorate the successful removal of the experimental pressure tubes C8, K5 and H8 (Zr-4; Zr-2.5 Nb) from the channels in 1988 after the permanent shutdown of the reactor in 1987.  The mug is 17 cm tall and the top covers a 7 cm diameter opening.

A copper-alloy bolt, one of two used to secure the end fittings on each end of the 132 fuel channels to the calandria at NPD.  The bolt is 13 cm in length and 2.5 cm in diameter; it measures 2.9 cm across the hex head.

The lower right-hand photo, taken from “A Description of NPD” – an illustrated talk presented at the Seventh AECL Symposium on Atomic Energy, Chalk River, September 18, 1961 by J. L. Olsen of CGE - shows the end of the fuel channel and the bracket with the boss for the two bolts.

A demonstration section of Zircaloy fuel-element sheathing for the 19-element fuel bundles used initially at NPD (and later at Douglas Point Nuclear Generating Station). Initially, NPD used 7-element fuel but later was converted to use 19- element bundles that had a higher power rating.  The tube shown is 52 cm in length, about 2.5 cm longer than used in an actual assembly. 

The lower photo and caption taken from “A Description of NPD” – an illustrated talk presented at the Seventh AECL Symposium on Atomic Energy, Chalk River, September 18, 1961 by J. L. Olsen of CGE, describes the process of assembling a 7-element bundle and gives details of final sizes for both types of bundles.

A demonstration-only end-plate from one of the 19-element fuel bundles used in the NPD reactor.  Initially NPD was loaded with 7-element bundles but these were later replaced by 19-element bundles that operated at higher power rating.  The lower left-hand photo, (taken from “A Description of NPD” – an illustrated talk presented at the Seventh AECL Symposium on Atomic Energy, Chalk River, September 18, 1961 by J. L. Olsen of CGE) shows the bundles with and without packing as received at NPD while the right-hand photo taken from NPD files shows more details of the end of an early design of 19 element bundle. The end-plate at the top, for a later design of 19-element bundle, was modified for easier welding on to the ends of the fuel elements.

The “garter spring” with a minor diameter of 8 mm was used at NPD2 in the space between the pressure tubes (PT) and calandria tubes (CT) that surrounded the PT.  The single “garter spring” was of “tight” design and gripped -as its name implies -the outside of the PT at the center point so the springs would generally stay in place despite eventually getting brittle from irradiation. It maintained the gap between the two tubes and prevented sagging of the fuel channel onto the CT.

Some later CANDU reactor designs, with longer pressure tubes, used multiple, loose “garter springs” which, when there was no fuel bundles in channels (e.g. during commissioning­) to secure them in place, often vibrated away from their positions resulted in damage to some PTs that sagged and contacted the much colder CTs. Subsequently there was a return to using “tight” “garter springs” in all those reactors.

An eight cm long segment removed from one of the fuel channels on NPD2 after shutdown.  A tube-slitting device, which cut a groove into the tube in two locations roughly 90 degrees apart, was run along the inside of the tube to allow extraction.  The lower diagram was extracted from “A Description of NPD” – an illustrated talk presented at the Seventh AECL Symposium on Atomic Energy, Chalk River, September 18, 1961 by J. L. Olsen of CGE.

An End Closure Plug from one of the fuel channels on NPD2.  The plug measures approximately 14.5 cm in cross section and 10 cm in length.  The descriptive panels were extracted from “A Description of NPD” – an illustrated talk presented at the Seventh AECL Symposium on Atomic Energy, Chalk River, September 18, 1961 by J. L. Olsen of CGE.

A large (195 cm wide by 87 cm high) framed poster illustrating the evolution of the CANDU family of reactors starting from ZEEP and progressing to the Gen III CANDU units.  The poster was generated in 2006 February.

A hardboard-backed, 45 cm wide by 65 cm high, photograph of the Wolsung, South Korea CANDU reactor site as seen in 1980 and circa 2000.

A framed, 82 cm wide by 65 cm high, photograph of the Wolsung, South Korea, CANDU reactor site.

A framed, 43 cm wide by 53 cm high, colour photograph collage of the personnel and activities at the Underground Research Laboratory (URL) located at the Whiteshell site. 

A 76 cm by 126 cm, foamboard-backed, poster depicting the use of neutron beams from NRU to determine residual strain at depth in materials.  In the particular case shown the stresses are being measured in a weld in a pipeline.  The testing is non-destructive and requires no preparation.

A 76 cm by 126 cm, foamboard-backed, poster depicting the use of neutron beams from NRU to measure strain and material texture as well as identify crystal phases in materials through measuring the diffraction of the neutrons striking the materials.

A framed, 29 cm by 35 cm, colour photograph composed of two aerial views, one of the Whiteshell Laboratory and one of the Pinawa town site.  This was presented to an employee named Heather (last name unknown) on her departure in August of 1997.

A high-radiation field, dual-chamber radiation detector.  The lower, wider chamber measures 11 cm in length while the narrower section, which has a thin detection window at the end with a removable cap, projects from the center of the larger chamber for a distance of 12 cm.  The entire unit (manufacturer unknown) is mounted on a tube-type socket and has a range of 0-250 R/h.

An AEP 5262B count-rate meter (minus the detector).  The rear panel connectors show the output connections to a chart recorder (J1) as well as a port for providing high voltage to the detector and receiving the signal (J2).  The metal box measures 20 cm wide by 13 cm deep by 13 cm high.  Note the logarithmic scale on the meter which allows a 4 decade range of count rate.

An AEP 2160 contamination rate meter.  This portable unit, equipped with a rechargeable battery, measures 28 cm by 16.5 cm at the base.  There is a detection unit mount at the top of the chassis but no detector was received with the unit.  The front panel has a switch for usage in detecting alpha as well as gamma and beta radiation and a second switch allowing a choice of time constants.  Hence, it is probable that a number of different detection units could be used with this power and readout unit. Output to a microphone or to a chart recorder is also available.

A Model 687 Minometer used for reading and charging personal dosimeters.  For charging, the personal dosimeter would be mounted on the upper of the two right-hand ports seen in the top  photo.  The metal-cased module measures 27 cm in length and is 18 cm wide.   This unit, labeled Minometer II on the front chassis, was a successor to artifact 2018-121.  The lowest photo, generated for public demonstrations of radiation detection at CRNL, indicates the purchase cost of the instrument was $300 (in ~1965). 

A wrist-mounted, film-badge dosimeter for determining radiation dosage to hands and fingers while working with a radiation source.  The recording  element is an actual film which indicates the usage was probably pre-1975.  Velco was used to allow easy closure and removal of the assembly.  The lower two photos show details of the badge itself. 

Two, 20 cm wide by 18 cm high, bookends made out of welded aluminum sheet to form the letters A, E, C, and L.

A framed, 25 cm by 30 cm, photograph of the group at the grand opening of the CIRCE (Combined Industrial Reforming and Catalytic Exchange) plant in Hamilton, ON, on 26 July 2000.

A model of the CIRCE (Combined Industrial Reforming and Catalytic Exchange) process set up in Hamilton, ON. in 2000-2002 in a pilot plant for the production of heavy water in an industrial setting.  The model, which is set on a 53 cm by 25 cm marble base, measures 23 cm in height and consists of three units.  The front and back views are shown in the first two photos while the next three photos show a close-up view of the final stage, the plaque attached to the base and the view from the top.

The three sections of the model represent three separate stages of the process.  The first (left-hand side as seen from the top photo) stage demonstrates the SMR (Steam-Methane Reforming) stage done at the Air Liquide plant, the second is a bi-thermal process and the final is the CECE (Combined Electrolysis and Catalytic Exchange) stage for final enrichment. 

A 5 cm diameter by 5 cm high cylindrical sample of the vitreous material used by the French company COGEMA for the immobilization of fission products for storage.

This is a Model 287 charger-reader manufactured by the Victoreen Instrument Company of Cleveland Ohio. Quoting a 1947 product description "The Minometer has been designed to measure stray radiation as well as extremely small X-ray and gamma ray quantities. The instrument consists essentially of a string electrometer and a small ionization chamber designed in the shape of a fountain pen for carrying in the coat pocket. The value of the ionization chamber, as well as the scale supplied with the instrument, is 0.2 R which is twice the accepted quantity estimated for a daily tolerance dose."  

The exposure (in mR) was determined by measuring the decrease in charge in the condenser chamber as a result of the radiation exposure. The condenser chambers that the Minometer charged and read were used for personnel monitoring.  Because the exposure could not be determined without the Minometer, the chambers were referred to as indirect reading pocket dosimeters. 

The box at the base of the instrument measures 14 cm by 8 cm.  Various models of dosimeters appear to have been used.  The Victoreen 754 in the last two photographs measured 9 cm in length.  The fifth photo shows the reading as seen through the viewing tube that projects up from the rectangular base.

A battery-operated, portable alpha radiation monitor.  This detector, labeled an AEP 118A, has a sticker from Electronic Associates Limited, a Willowdale, ON, company.  The electrical components and batteries are housed in a 25-cm-long by 12-cm-wide and 9-cm-high metal box.  The 27-cm-long detector houses a zinc sulphide scintillator in a 4.7-cm-diameter round head behind a thin aluminized mylar window and protective screen.  The light from the scintillator is channelled to a photomultiplier tube.  The unit does not have a meter indicating the level of radiation, but instead has two 5-cm-diameter earphones for listening to the detector output pulses.  The manufacturer of the earphones is Clevite Brush.   The entire unit has a long shoulder belt and may well have been an early unit used for prospecting for radioactive ore.

A multi-range, ionization-chamber-based, radiation-survey meter which measures 40 cm in overall length with a 15 cm active length detector.  The meter also has a support to allow it to make it self-standing.  The final photo shows the end of the detector barrel, which has a rotating cover that exposes the thin aluminum window and allows the detector to be used with low-energy X-rays and/or beta radiation that would otherwise be stopped in the cover. Tracerlab introduced a series of these “Cutie Pie” radiation meters in the late 1940s.  The series began with SU-1.  The full-scale meter reading on this unit is 15, 150 or 1500 mR/h, depending on the range selector knob position chosen. 

A multi-range, high-field, ionization chamber radiation-survey meter which measures 40 cm in overall length with a 15 cm active-length detector.  The meter also has a support to allow it to make it self-standing.  The photo in the second  row shows the end of the detector barrel which has a rotating cover that exposes the thin aluminum window and allows the detector to be used with low-energy X-rays and/or beta radiation that would otherwise be stopped in the cover.

It is not known if the unusual red colour of it indicates this particular unit may have been used in a special area such as a hot cell.  The specifications sheet was found on the internet at http://national-radiation-instrument-catalog.com/new_page_37.htm    It indicates that the SU-IH was designed for dose rates up to 1500mR/h.   However, given the meter scale and range selection labels, it appears that the meter was modified at Chalk River to measure exposure rates up to 1500 R/h, or integrated exposure up to 1.5 R.

The Transcint Model 1001 monitor was a transistorized gamma ray monitor based on a scintillation counter rather than on an ion chamber.  It stands approximately 35 cm tall and the detection unit and electronics are housed in a removable fiberglass container.  The counter was manufactured by Canadian Aviation Electronics around 1955. Although this model of detector was first sold and advertised as a gamma counter (see artifact 2018-116), this particular instrument has been altered to detect fast neutrons. Comparing the electrical circuit components in the two artifacts indicates that changes in the circuit design were made.  Note that there appears to be no absolute measure of the fast neutron flux: the meter indicates relative values only.

The Transcint Model 1001 monitor was a transistorized gamma ray monitor based on a solid-state scintillation detector rather than on a gas-filled detector such as a Geiger tube or an ion chamber.  It stands approximately 35 cm tall and the detection unit and electronics are housed in a removable fiberglass container.  The counter was manufactured by Canadian Aviation Electronics around 1955.  This particular unit has a note on the side of it warning radiation surveyors not to confuse it with the fast neutron monitor of similar construction which is artifact 2018-117.  Note that there are three exposure rate ranges selectable, giving the instrument an exposure rate range from environmental background levels up to 2 mR/h.  The last photo was extracted from  http://national-radiation-instrument-catalog.com/new_page_93.htm

A Victoreen survey meter based on an ion chamber.  The chamber is housed in a 31-cm-long by 15-cm-wide by 14-cm-tall metal container and is carried by a wooden handle.  There is some ambiguity with respect to the range settings and meter dial scales, and no operation manual could be located for the instrument.  It appears that the instrument could be operated on any of 10 different exposure rate ranges, from 0-3 mR/h to 0-300 R/h, or on any of five integrated exposure ranges, from 0-3 mR to 0-300 mR.  The bottom of the chamber, shown in two of the photographs, has a metal cover that can be slid down to expose a thin aluminum or aluminised mylar window to allow use in monitoring beta radiation.  The label on the monitor shows that the last calibration was done 12 April 1984 and that the next calibration was due exactly one year later.

A 76 cm by 69 cm, framed, colour photograph of the sixteen-member AECL Management Team as of 19 June 1991.  The framed assembly has a metal plaque beneath the photograph indicating the date and bearing the names of the individuals.

“Gamma Meter 1” used at the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor.  The hand-held gamma ray monitor, measuring 40 cm in overall length and having a 15 cm long active tube, was apparently used in the Emergency Vehicle at NPD.  It was a two-range instrument with both a 0-50 mR/h range and a higher 0-2.5 R/h range.  No provision was made to use the counter detecting for beta radiation.

A hand-held, 52 cm long, AEP 5227 contamination meter.  The meter face seen in detail in the lower right-hand photograph indicates the counter could be used over two ranges; 0-1000 CPM and 0-60k CPM.  The Geiger counter tube is protected in a housing that has an array of gaps partly exposing the thin tube wall that allows counting for beta as well as gamma radiation.

An AEP-1910 beta/gamma radiation detector.  The hand-held monitor measures 47 cm in length overall and was used mainly to check for radioactive contamination on equipment.  It was capable of measuring up to 20,000 counts per minute and had a low–battery indication setting on the meter scale.  The barrel containing the Geiger tube had a series of holes machined into the aluminum protective cover to allow measurement of beta activity.  There were several versions of this counter developed.

An AEP-1910 beta/gamma radiation detector.  The hand-held monitor measures 47 cm in length overall and was used mainly to check for radioactive contamination on equipment.  It was capable of measuring up to 20,000 counts per minute and had a low–battery indication setting on the meter scale.  The barrel of the detection section had a cut-away window that allowed the measurement of beta activity.  The Geiger tube had a spirally-wound cathode.  Three output ports are seen in the lower right-hand photograph. There were several versions of this counter developed. A very faded identification ring can be seen just to the left of the meter in the top left-hand photograph.  This ring contains the information “Beta-gamma contamination counter II” in what appears to be an outside manufacturer’s label (i.e. not AECL).

A vintage, Weston Model 45, 0-15 mA meter contained in a wooden box.  The square box is 20 cm in dimension and 11.5 cm deep.  The meter was manufactured and calibrated in 1945 and displays a calibration date of 3 July 1945.  Hence, it would have been among the first electrical equipment purchased for the Chalk River site..  The accuracy is claimed to be 0.5% and the meter was probably used as a calibration standard for other instrumentation at the site.

A 2 cm square by 5 cm high sample of graphite from the world’s first reactor, the Chicago Pile (CP-1) which heralded the start of the nuclear fission age on 02 December 1942.  The sample is enclosed in a plastic vial and is cemented to an 8 cm square wooden base. The item was obtained by the donor at a souvenir shop in Idaho Falls in the USA.

An early analogue ac voltmeter produced by the Weston Electrical Instrument Company and used by personnel based in Bldg. 409 at CRNL.  The instrument, packaged in a Bakelite box, is approximately 13 cm square by 8.5 cm deep.  Input is at three possible points for full-scale range of 150 V, 300 V or 750 V.  Accuracy claimed to be 0.75%.

A framed, 79 cm by 104 cm, photograph of a technician installing a fuel element for an experiment in the Zero Energy Experimental Pile (ZEEP) reactor located in Bldg. 105 at CRNL.  ZEEP, the first nuclear reactor to operate outside of the USA, was first put into operation on 05 September 1945. This photo was one of several that were on display for many years in the foyer of Bldg. 145.

A framed, 79 cm by 104 cm, photograph illustrating a fuel rod change in the Zero Energy Deuterium reactor, ZED-2, located in Bldg. 145 at CRNL.  The person operating the crane is identified as E. Pleau, the identity of the person guiding the fuel rod is unknown.  This photo was one of several that were on display in the foyer of Bldg. 145.

A framed, 79 cm by 104 cm photograph of activity at the Pool Test Reactor (PTR) located in Bldg. 145 at CRNL showing the bridge above the pool and the control desk.  The person at the desk has been identified as Lynn Larson (nee Vidal) but the person above the pool is unidentified. PTR began operations 29 November 1957; it ceased operation in 1990. This photo was one of several that were displayed for many years in the foyer of Bldg. 145. The second panel (courtesy of AECL) features a publication celebrating the 50th anniversary of the reactor.

A framed, 79 cm by 104 cm, photograph of the prototype SLOWPOKE 1 reactor in Bldg. 145 at Chalk River in May of 1970, just prior to testing in the Pool Type Reactor (PTR) reactor pool.  The schematic of an installed unit, shown in the lower left corner of the frame is reproduced in the right-hand panel along with a second similar schematic below.  The two persons at the very left of the photograph are, respectively, P. Stephens-Guille and S. Gowans.  They were the engineers intimately tied to the mechanical design of the reactor assembly.  This photo was one of several that were displayed for many years in the foyer of Bldg. 145.

A 51 cm by 71 cm laminated poster with an aerial photograph taken 1944, or earlier, before work on the CRNL site began along with two sections of survey maps indicating the ownership of the properties later expropriated for both the CRNL Plant site and the town of Deep River.  The map section showing the properties where the Plant was built is dated September 7, 1944.

A large (97 cm by 146 cm) framed poster illustrating the proposed Canadian Neutron Facility.  The Facility was being proposed by a large consortium of Canadian and international researchers as a replacement facility for NRU.  The poster lists the groups involved; the power industry, universities, government laboratories, international research and the manufacturing industries.  Fields of research and use would be; superconducting materials, polymers, biological tissue, semiconductors, minerals, pharmaceuticals and alloys.

Typical 1960s era circuit board designed and manufactured at Chalk River for use in nuclear physics research experiments.  The boards, typically 19 cm in length, with a handle at the rear, would plug into a header that supplied the data signals as well as the operating power for the board.  Thes units predated the NIM (Nuclear Module Instrumentation) modules which became standard in the early 1970s.  This board was part of the electronics instrumentation used by Warwick Knowles at Chalk River.

A 62 cm by 61 cm framed diagram illustrating the features of the L-3 multi-axis spectrometer which has been the workhorse for the neutron diffraction work carried out at NRU by AECL, NRC and their many Canadian and international collaborators.

A large (97 by 146 cm) poster illustrating the use of thermal neutrons from NRU to obtain holographic images of objects placed in the neutron beam.

A large (107 by 127 cm) poster describing the use of neutron diffraction for the analysis of an in-situ welding procedure.

A large (97 cm by 147 cm) poster describing work on “Geometrically Frustrated Magnetism” using neutron beams at NRU.

A large (146 cm by 96 cm) framed poster describing the joint NRC-AECL Biomaterials Program at NRU based on x-ray diffraction.  Second of two panels.

A large (97 cm by 147 cm) framed poster describing the joint NRC-AECL Biomaterials Program at NRU based on x-ray diffraction.  One of two panels.

A framed 97 cm by 113 cm poster displaying the flags of the 15 countries from which users for Canada’s Neutron Beam laboratory have come to CRNL.  Researchers from 20 Canadian university are among the myriad of researchers who have made use of the unique facilities provided by NRU.

A large (97 cm by 114 cm) framed poster describing the various NRC programs carried out at the NRU facilities at CRNL.  Activities include magnetism and superconductivity, biomaterials, materials science and engineering, structures and dynamics, and surfaces and interfaces.

A large (107 cm by 127 cm) framed poster describing the many aspects of the neutron beam program at NRU.  “Neutron Beams Provide Answers to problems in Engineering”.

A large (97 cm by 113 cm) framed poster describing the origins of the neutron scattering program which was started by Bertran Brockhouse at NRX in 1957.  The main instrument used, a triple-axis neutron spectrometer, is now at the Canadian Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa.  Work on these spectrometers led to the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Brockhouse in 1994.  Two enlarged photographs are extracted from the panel to show further detail.

 A 48 cm by 42 cm, framed, colour photograph of the CRNL plant site from the Quebec shore of the Ottawa River.

A framed black and white aerial photograph of the nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) site.  The framed assembly measures 63 cm by 53 cm.

A 16 cm tall model of an irradiation assembly of the fuel pencils irradiated in NRX for the production of Mo99. The fuel pins, mounted three together in extended strings, measure 75 mm on the model. The irradiation assembly is mounted on an 18 cm by 13.5 cm wooden base with an engraved dedication plate with the signatures of members of the Nuclear Materials Control (NMC) branch. Dedication plate reads “Presented to Al Pyatt by NMC on his Retirement, December 1980”.

Signatures interpreted as: GW Antler, Sharon Binzig, Loreta Evans, Len Perry, Doug Wright, Armin Voss, Keith Morton, Lloyd Dunn, Mary Ann Tennant, Lynn English, Joe Carr, Mickey Hammond, Richard Harrison, Jack Schreader, Jan Elder, Ron Giroux, Karl Noll, N. Virgo, Brian O’Connor, Merve Buske and Ethel Frivalt.

A commemorative metal and wooden box presented to JL Gray, then AECL President, by the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) – a joint Canada-Pakistan effort.  The box, measuring 22 cm long by 14 cm wide by 6.5 cm high, shows a depiction of the nuclear power plant on its top and has the engraving “137 MWe  Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (1971)” on the lower part of the box top.  The lower photos show the top, and inside views of the box as well as the front  and side views.  It is not known when the presentation took place and what the composition of the metal used is.

A 46 cm by 37 cm framed copy of the certificate presented to Ari J. Mooradian in 1980 in recognition of his being awarded the W.B. Lewis Award “in recognition for his distinguished contributions to nuclear science and engineering in Canada.” The award was presented in Montreal on June 17, 1980, by the Canadian Nuclear Association.

A framed, artist’s depiction, of the Tritium Extraction Plant sited at CRNL.  The drawing measures 57 cm by 37 cm and is in a 62 cm by 54 cm frame. 

A framed 66 cm by 57 cm aerial photo of the CRNL site.  Photo was taken post-1970 but exact date unknown.

A framed, 33 cm by 38 cm, article from the 2002 April 10 issue of the Ottawa Citizen as a follow-up on the radiation exposure to four employees in 1999 August while working in Bldg. 220 at CRNL.  AECL was found in violation of the Canada Labour Code and fined $24,000.

A framed, 48 cm by 61 cm, copy of the 1999 August 05 front page of the Ottawa Citizen claiming that four CRNL employees received “massive radiation doses” while working in Bldg. 220 (the building used in the 1940s for plutonium extraction) at the CRNL site. 

A framed, 57 cm by 57 cm, aerial photograph of the Perch Lake area on the CRNL property.  The Plant Road is seen in the central portion of the photograph and the laboratory buildings appear in the upper right-hand corner.

A framed, 57 cm by 57 cm, aerial photograph of the Maskinonge Lake area on the CRNL property.  The “Plant Road” is seen in the lower right segment of the photograph.

A framed, 109 cm by 130 cm, aerial photograph showing the area extending from the west end of Deep River to just beyond Pointe au Bapteme.  Photograph was taken in 1970 by the Department of Mines and resources, Canada.

A framed, 48 cm by 57 cm, photograph of the electric generator at the Douglas Point nuclear generating station at Kincardine ON.  With a nominal output of 200 MW (electrical), this was the first industrial-scale nuclear-generating site in Canada.  It came into operation in 1968.

This was a precision, computer-controlled, Michelson-type interferometer used to measure the important physics parameter, the fine structure constant.  The device could make diffraction angle measurements within an accuracy of +/- 0.005”.  To maintain the physical dimensions accurately all critical parts of the apparatus, which measures ~60 cm in width, were machined out of Invar, which has an almost zero expansion coefficient over a wide temperature range.  The apparatus was designed and assembled at CRNL by H. Bird as a PhD thesis project and was used for a number of years for measuring X and gamma ray scattering precisely by J. W. Knowles and his experimental group. 

 Overall computer control was achieved with a PDP-8 computer.  During measurements there were a number of delicate and complex optical lenses and mirrors used.  Unfortunately most of these were badly damaged over the years of storage.

A large (38 cm by 45 cm) framed display board, formerly mounted in the Tandem and SuperConducting Cyclotron (TASCC) control room at Chalk River and indicating which beam line elements were activated as well as showing the path of the beam from one of the ion sources, through the accelerators and beamlines to the final experimental station. A smaller photo-metal etch panel was also installed at the control desk to allow a display for the operators.

A framed, 43 cm by 53 cm, map showing the surficial geology of the Perch Lake Drainage Basin and Environs dated from 1958.

A 24.5 cm diameter by 1 cm thick slice of a drill core from the pluton near the Whiteshell laboratories where the Underground Research Laboratory (URL) was sited.

 A ZEEP-related coffee mug produced by the Deep River Players for a theatre production in 2005.

A large photo, measuring 59 cm by 102 and mounted on a hardboard backing, showing the attendees at the start up of the 25 MW NDP reactor at Rolphton, ON in 1962.

A 69 cm by 79 cm framed illustration of the proposed Intrusion Resistant Underground Structure (IRUS) proposed to be built in the waste management area at CRNL.

A framed photo, measuring 47 cm by 69 to the outside of the frame, showing the attendees present at the start up of the 25 MW NDP reactor at Rolphton, ON in 1962.

The Wm. Ainsworth & Sons Company of Denver Colorado, USA, produced highly accurate balances in the era before the arrival of digital balances.  This Type BB unit which measures 46 cm wide by 25 cm deep by 50 cm high was used for many years for delicate chemical measurements at CRNL. It had a capacity of 200 grams per pan and a sensitivity of 1/20 of a milligram under full load.

A model of a two-chemical element, body-centered cubic crystalline structure.  A typical compound having this structure is CsCl.  The model measures roughly 25 cm to a side. 

A ~20 cm cubic model of a cubic-array crystal depicting a simple compound such as NaCl.

The Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI) is a Government of Canada commitment to the cleanup and safe, long-term management of radioactive waste at Port Hope and Clarington in Ontario.  The ceramic mugs were handed out to area residents to encourage their input into the process.

A black ceramic coffee mug put out by the Canadian Nuclear Society (CNS) promoting nuclear energy as good for the environment.

Two identical, circular, wooden spools, 38 cm in outside diameter, in which surveying/measuring tapes are wound.  The units are made by the Keuffel and Essel (K&E) company of Manhattan, USA, who produced many different precision drawing and measuring instruments.  These two identical tapes were used in measuring cooling water levels (above sea level) at Chalk River associated with both the NRU and NRX reactors.  The tapes, instead of having a starting point of zero, start with a marking of 457’ 7”.  Their final marking is 484’ 7”.  Only after discovery of the drawings of the Bldg. 440 settling basins for incoming reactor cooling water from the Ottawa River was it possible to determine what these markers were associated with.  The two numbers correspond to the bottom level of the “clear wells” and the top of the outlet valve in Bldg. 440. 

Eleven additional markings exist on the tapes at various irregular intervals.  As of 19 November 2019, it had not been established to what the specific vertical positions in Bldg. 440 or in the reactor geometries these numbers corresponded.

A 57cm wide by 39 cm deep by 40 cm tall model of a nominal 1000 MW Advanced CANDU Reactor (ACR-1000) supplemented by a wind turbine array and coupled to a NuWind electrolysis plant for the production of hydrogen and heavy water as well as feeding power to the grid. The unit is enclosed in an acrylic dust cover.  To recognize his contributions to heavy-water and hydrogen technology, this model of the NuWind concept was presented to Alistair Miller in 2005 when he made the transition at CRNL from employee to a researcher emeritus.

An 8.5 cm diameter commemorative coaster presented to employees in recognition of their contributions to achieving first power on MAPLE.  The occasion was 2000 February 19.

A 7.2 cm diameter coaster/medallion  for beverage mugs issued to employees, probably on the occasion of Gentilly-2 bring declared “in-service” in 1982. Gentilly-2 (G-2) was commissioned in 1982 and operated at a power of 675 MW with a good record into the 2000s.  Decommissioning began in late 2012.

A 9.0 cm diameter brass coaster for beverage mugs issued to employees on the occasion of Unit 6 of the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station “B” being declared “In-Service”.  The occasion was 1984 September 14.

A 9.1 cm diameter brass coaster for beverage mugs issued to employees on the occasion of “First Power” from the Darlington A nuclear generating station.  The first of the units to come on line was Unit 2 and the date was 1990 January 15.

A coffee mug issued to employees during the construction of the Darlington nuclear generating station. The year shown is 1988, two years before first power, which occurred from Unit 2 on 1990 January 15.  The initials “TRF” are believed associated with the construction company involved.

Front and reverse views of a commemorative coffee mug celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the “First Electricity from Nuclear Fission in Canada”.  That event happened at NPD at Rolphton on June 4, 1962.  The reunion , sponsored by the CNS,  marking this achievement occurred 20 October 1982.

A coffee mug of the type used by most experimenters at the Tandem And SuperConducting Cyclotron accelerator complex at CRNL.  The facility operated until 1997 when it was dismantled due to financial constraints on AECL.

A coffee mug marking the restart of the NRU reactor after the major effort in 2010.  This was presented to members of the refurbishment team.

A 10 cm wide, Z-shaped, stainless steel book rest produced by Stainless Steel Technology probably as a simple promotional item to indicate its capabilities.

A compact, 7 cm diameter, circular slide rule and wallet labeled as “Canadian General Electric, Atomic Power Dept.”  It is believed this was a promotional item from CGE given to personnel working on the design of NPD at Rolphton.  Many conversion factors are listed on the reverse side of the slide rule.  The instructions indicate the manufacturer simply as “alpha”.

A 61 cm by 97 cm, foam-board backed poster announcing the Official Launch of AECL’s long-awaited history, “Canada Enters the Nuclear Age”.  The launch took place in Ottawa on 1997 June 08.  Additional photographs show the assembly of the contributors to the book and a smaller poster with their signatures.

A framed, 58 cm by 84 cm, AECL Research poster promoting the use of neutrons for research of matter.

A 5.3 cm tall stainless-steel “mini barrel” of heavy water produced by the ROMAG-PROD company in Romania.  The company was set up largely to serve the Cernavoda CANDU complex in Romania but also supplies heavy water to South Korea, China and several other countries.

A 9.5 cm tall glass bottle containing a sample of the first production of reactor grade heavy water at the Bruce heavy water plant.  The plant reached this milestone in 1973 March.

Front and side views of a small sample of heavy water enclosed in a 5 cm cube of acrylic.  The heavy water was produced by the Combined Industrial Reforming and Catalytic Exchange (CIRCE) process. This process was developed by AECL and a pilot plant was put into operation in Hamilton Ontario.

A framed, 43 cm by 61 cm, poster announcing the Symposium at McMaster University in May 1995 honouring Dr. B. N. Brockhouse, 1994 Nobel Laureate in Physics and former long-time AECL researcher.

Canadian General Electric (CGE) were awarded the contract to fabricate 19000 fuel bundles for the Pickering Generating Station. To commemorate the contract CGE presented AECL with a fuel bundle mounted on a 25 cm by 65 cm wooden base. The presentation was made at Sheridan Park sometime in the early 1960s. The base continued to sit neglected at the facility but the disposition of the fuel bundle is unknown. It is also not known if the fuel bundle contained uranium or not.

A full-scale, stainless-steel replica of one of the four fuel bundles designed for the core of a 10 MW (thermal) SLOWPOKE reactor. The SLOWPOKE series of reactors were pool-type unpressurized reactors cooled by natural circulation of light water.  The first units were built with a power of a few watts (up to 20 kW) and were built largely for university installations where they were used primarily for neutron activations.  The ultra-safe operating mode lead to the development of higher power units which might be used for district heating, particularly in remote northern regions where heating is very expensive.  Designs were completed for units with powers in the range of 2-10 MW and a 2 MW unit was built and operated at the Whiteshell Laboratories.

The bundle consists of forty-nine, 13.1 mm diameter, fuel elements each approximately 75 cm in length.  The outside measurement of the square bundle is 13.3 cm and the overall length of the assembly is 87.6 cm.

An aluminum model of the ZEEP reactor presented to R. Green on his retirement to recognize his 22 years at CRNL – many of which involved work with ZEEP.  The model, which stands 21 cm and sits above a 42 cm wide wooden base is largely machined out of aluminum and features movable “shielding” and a transparent glass “reactor calandria” where the fuel rods can be seen hanging in a manner very similar to the actual ZEEP arrangement.  Two tanks to the left of the vessel represent the supply of heavy-water which can be pumped into the tank via glass tubing.  When originally built a pump that could move “consumable celebratory liquid” was installed and could operate with the small-push button seen near the front on the right-hand side of the wooden base.

A 150 cm by 95 cm colour layout of the TASCC facility (circa 1996) mounted on a section of 6 mm thick hardboard.  This display had been used near the TASCC control room until the facility was shut down in 1997.

A 39 cm by 50 cm framed layout of the CRNL plant site as of September 1963.

An 18 cm by 18 cm photo-etch depiction of the High Current Test Facility (HCTF) mounted on a wooden base.  The HCTF, located in Bldg. 610 at CRNL, was part of a program investigating electronuclear breeding – a process for producing intense neutron sources by spallation through the collision of high energy protons with heavy elements.  The “electrically-produced” neutrons could then be captured in a thorium blanket around the accelerator target to produce fissile material.  A retirement gift donated to the Society.

An aluminum representation of a pressure vessel with fuel channels mounted on a wooden base.  This memento was presented to J. Bayley by Ontario Hydro in appreciation of his efforts during the construction of Darlington Generating Station (G.S.).   Julian Bayley started out his nuclear career at NPD and then moved on to Douglas Point, Pickering G.S., Bruce G.S. and finally to Darlington G.S.  He retired to Deep River and then, to complete the circle, was contracted to work on the initial decommissioning of NPD.  The mock-up stands approximately 7 cm by 7 cm and is mounted on a 22 cm square wooden base.

The Research and Development (R&D) magazine in the USA runs an annual competition and then honours what it regards as the top 100 developments worldwide in science and engineering.  It holds a black-tie dinner in Chicago each year to present the awards.  In 1990 the Industrial Materials Processing Electron Linear Accelerator (IMPELA), which was developed at CRNL, received this honour. A framed 24 cm by 30 cm photo showing, L-R; J. Ungrin, T. Rummery, R. Jones (R&D Chairman), J. McKeown, A. Stirling receiving the award.

The Research and Development (R&D) magazine in the USA runs an annual competition and then honours what it regards as the top 100 developments worldwide in science and engineering.  It holds a black-tie dinner in Chicago each year to present the awards.  In 1990 the Industrial Materials Processing Electron Linear Accelerator (IMPELA), which was developed at CRNL, received this honour.  The photo-metal etched award plaque seen in the photo is a duplicate of the one displayed at CRNL.

The Zero Energy Experimental Pile (ZEEP) reactor was the first reactor in the world to operate outside of the USA.  It went into operation on 05 September 1945.  The reactor had a graphite reflector and in 1997 when the reactor was dismantled and donated by AECL to the Canadian Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa one block of graphite was retained and cut into many small pieces.  These ~ 1 x1 x 2 cm pieces were embedded in plastic and presented to many employees who had an association with the historic reactor over its long life.  The plastic unit is ~6 cm wide and 7.5 cm tall.

Large (~30 cm diameter) tape reels began to be employed at CRNL with the G-20 for input and output around 1962.   These reels were often assigned to a particular project or user and were stored in the central computing center to store data and programs.  To protect the tape surface from dust and damage, the reels were stored in plastic storage cases. The upper two photographs show a reel both inside and outside its plastic storage case.  The lower two photos show the 12.5 mm (nominal ½ inch) tape and the indicator scale to show the number of turns of tape.  These tapes were especially valuable during that era when solid-state memories were still unknown.

A new form of computer input arrived at CRNL with the G-20 computer in the early 1960s - paper punch cards that could be read rapidly by an optical reader.  These 8.4 cm by 18.6 cm cards were used both to input programs and data.  The input for a single computer run might consist of several thousand of these cards and the greatest fear for all who handled them was dropping one of the boxes containing the cards and somehow shuffling the order in which they needed to be read. Various colours were used to indicate program code or data input as well as the start and end of jobs. At the Whiteshell Laboratories, before a large computer was installed on-site, the cards were read by a reader on-site and the data was transmitted via telephone line to a computer in Winnipeg.

A slide rule developed by URENCO to relate “separative work price” for enriched uranium (by the gas centrifuge method) to the initial concentration and the tailing assay.  The calculator is 10 cm by 19 cm (closed size) and made of plastic.  The lower photo shows the calculator with the central slider partially removed. 

A circular slide rule used to relate water flow rate, temperature differential and power for large electron tube cooling circuits.  By measuring two of the parameters, the third could be calculated using this 12.5 cm circular slide-rule.  For example, knowing the water flow rate and the temperature difference between the input water and the exit water, the power being deposited in the device can be quickly determined. This calculator, made of card stock, was produced by the Raytheon Company, a manufacturer of high-power electron tubes and that had a power range up to 10 kW.  It was used at the Commercial Products Division of AECL in Kanata.

A simple “rotating wheel” calculator that, by matching the half-life and the elapsed time, allowed one to calculate the fraction of activity remaining in a radioactive sample.  The 14 cm diameter calculator, made of paper card, was manufactured by AECL Commercial Products Division well before hand-held electronic calculators were available.  The reverse side of the calculator listed the half-lives, in alphabetic order, of about 100 isotopes that might be encountered.

A then “state-of-the-art”, high-accuracy, 0-150 V, 0-300 V and 0-750 V electrodynomometer voltmeter built in 1950 and used as a calibration instrument for other run-of-the-mill meters in the CRNL laboratory.  The meter, built by the Weston Electric Instrument Corporation of Newark, N.J., USA, is housed in a sturdy wooden box that measures 21 cm by 27 cm and is 15 cm high. A detailed information sheet defining accuracy and other features of the meter is encased in the cover.  The sheet is dated 12 June 1950.

A then “state-of-the-art”, high-accuracy, 0-1.5V and 0-15V, electrodynomometer voltmeter built in 1950 and used as a calibration instrument for other run-of-the-mill meters in the CRNL laboratory.  The meter, built by the Weston Electric Instrument Corporation of Newark, N.J., USA, is housed in a sturdy wooden box that measures 21 cm by 27 cm and is 15 cm high. A detailed information sheet defining accuracy and other features of the meter is encased in the cover.  The sheet is dated 30 September 1950.

A then “state-of-the-art”, high-accuracy, 0-10 A ac/dc meter built in 1950 and usable as a calibration instrument for other run-of-the-mill meters in the laboratory.  The meter, built by the Weston Electric Instrument Corporation of Newark, N.J., USA, is housed in a sturdy wooden box that measures 21 cm by 27 cm and is 15 cm high. A detailed information sheet defining accuracy and other features of the meter is encased in the cover.  The sheet is dated 17 April 1950.

A crucible for immobilizing fission products in glass.  The crucible is 35 cm high and has an outside diameter of 20 cm. The inside diameter is 17 cm.  In operation, the fission products, in a concentrated nitric acid solution, are mixed with a glass-forming rock, nepheline syenite, suitably fluxed with lime.  The mixture is heated to 1350 ⁰C and allowed to cool thereby forming a glass.  The first photo shows the crucible and a typical glass block while the second indicates the size of the block. The blocks were cast at CRNL and sets of twenty-five of them were then buried in a pattern in soil and the leach rate was monitored for a number of decades.

A 38 cm by 48 cm mat-backed photo of a CRNL technologist making measurements on a non-active glass block used for trials in 1959 and 1969 for the immobilization of fission products for underground storage.  In actual practice, the highly radioactive wastes, in a hot “glass melt”, would be poured into the ceramic vessel in a shielded area.  The cooled blocks would then be removed from the crucible and buried for long-term tests on the leaching rates of the fission products to soil and groundwater. The photograph on the right details the immobilization procedure.

The two sections of packing crates were recovered from the demolition of a shed at 9 Silvie in Deep River.  Both wooden pieces had been used for the roof of the shed with the surface displaying the intended destination visible from below. The upper surface had been shingled over with asphalt shingles.   The  larger piece (54 cm by 68 cm) is addressed to “National Research Council, Chalk River Laboratories” and is made using nominal 1” (2.5 cm) thick boards.  The purchase order number (50/PEM/1610) for the material in the crate is listed.  The smaller (20 cm by 76 cm) board in the lower photo identifies the shipping company as “General Radio Company’ of Cambridge, Mass. USA.  It is unknown if the two boards came from the same crate.

Since AECL was incorporated and took over management of the laboratory in 1952, this shipping crate, still addressed to NRC, must predate that date.  Prior to mid-1956, all homes in Deep River were owned by AECL and so the “owner” of this shed is unknown.  Did the resident in the period build a private shed on NRC/AECL property using scavenged materials or did he store the packing crates and build post-1956?

A photo mounted on a 50 cm by 75 cm hardboard backing celebrating 50 years of work by the Neutron and Solid State Physics Branch at NRU and showing insets of individual members of the Branch.. (Over that 50 year period the branch had a variety of names).  Photo was generated in 2007

A big advance in computing at CRNL came about around 1957 with the acquisition of an electron-tube based “electronic” computer.  It was known by various names, the Datatron, the Burroughs 205 or the Electrodata 205 and consisted of a large (~ 3 m long) cabinet containing a data entry panel,  a large number of plug-in, electron-tube based modules and a large memory drum. It also had a separate motor-generator unit to supply the power required.

The photos show various views of one of the 149, electron-tube based, modules from the Datatron.  The key elements were the Sylvania 5963 twin-triode vacuum tubes.  These tubes are still highly sought by audiophiles for amplifiers.  As with all electron-tube based electronic circuits of that era, numerous spares were essential to ensure a high duty factor. 

Hard-drive platter for a CDC 6600 computer.  The CDC 6600 was the “mainframe” at CRNL in the early 1970s and was the first in a series of “supercomputers”.   Stacks of these hard drives, each ~66 cm (26 inch) in diameter and weighing 3.3 kg, were used with the CDC 6600 computer.  The discs were made of 3 mm thick aluminum and had a magnetic-recording film on both the top and bottom surfaces. A retiree who worked on the CDC 6600 remembers the storage memory operation as follows:

"The disc platters were mounted on two spindles.  Each spindle had two groups of 16 platters and, during operation, would be rotating at 1800 rpm.  The read/write heads floated between the platters, such that one read/write head was able to read the surface above it, and below it.  Each group of 16 platters thus had 30 surfaces that could be recorded on, leading to a total of 60 recording surfaces.  The total capacity of the device (all 60 surfaces) was 131 million, 6 bit characters.  Only two inches of that 26-inch surface was recorded on; the transfer rate was not exceeded by any disc manufacturer until the late 1970s.” 

A modern DVD, rated at a capacity of 4.7 GB, is also shown for contrast in the first photo.  The second photo shows details of the mounting hub. This had to be an extremely stable and balanced device to maintain the positions of the platters precisely at the high rotation speeds used.

The Hall flowmeter is a calibrated device built to measure the flow rate of metal powders.  It consists of a stand and two funnels with accurately machined and tapered apertures.  The device is approximately 30 cm tall while the funnels have an outside diameter of 7.5 cm.  Standardized aperture diameters are 2.5 and 5 mm.   The bottom view of the two funnels is shown in the right-most photograph. The inside surface of the aluminum funnels are highly polished.  The flow rate is determined by the time for a 50 g sample to flow through the aperture.

The device can also be used to measure the “apparent density” of free-flowing powders by measuring the time for material flowing through the 2.5 mm aperture to fill a standardized 25 cm³ container placed below the aperture.  The bottom of the density cup can be seen in the second and third photographs. The cup in this particular unit was constructed out of copper.

The 5 mm aperture funnel is used to measure the “apparent density” for non free-flowing powders. 

“Apparent density” is defined as the mass per unit volume.

This panel, originally located in the Control Room of the Chalk River Tandem and Super-Conducting Cyclotron (TASSC), indicated the path of the accelerated beam starting from one of the two ion sources all the way through the tandem and/or the cyclotron to the experimental set-up. The 40 cm by 40 cm, photo-etched, aluminum panel used LED lights to indicate which of the beam line magnets were energized as well as in which areas radiation hazards existed.  The right-hand photo shows the back of the panel and the electronic circuits which received the signals from the beamline and radiation monitors and turned on the LED indicators. The TASSC accelerator was shut down in 1997 and dismantled.

This Rubicon galvanometer was used to detect and measure very small currents before the advent of digital ammeters.  The earliest versions of galvanometers usually had a mirror attached to a fiber and the angular deflection served to show both polarity and magnitude of the current. This unit, standing about 15 cm in height, showed the deflection of a small spring coil against a calibrated scale.  The right-hand photo shows the two terminals where the circuit wires were connected and a larger central knob that was used to zero the meter.  This galvanometer was built by the Rubicon Company of Philadelphia, USA. This company built a wide range of electrical measuring equipment.

A sample of unknown origin of deuteroparaffin (paraffin where the ordinary hydrogen is replaced by deuterium) held in a glass vail.  The vial is stored in a 24 cm long wooden block into which a hole was bored.  A cork closes the container.  The label on the outside of the wooden container appears to indicate that at 73⁰ C the container contained 20 g of paraffin with a density of 0.99.  The glass vial inside the wooden container appears to indicate that the material was later repackaged and that only 10.5 g now exist in the vial.  The repackaging date was 16/7/1946.  The note on the vial also indicates that the deuterium source was Norsk Hydro. 

These cast-aluminum nameplates had been mounted on the 22 MW, Metropolitan-Vickers, electric generator at the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor located at Rolphton, Ontario, which generated the first nuclear-based electricity in Canada. The heavy-water, natural uranium, pressure-tube based reactor started operation in 1962 and continued to operate until 1987.  For much of that period it also served as a training center for many of the operators needed to staff the larger Douglas Point, Pickering and Bruce generating stations. 

The plates were mounted on the side of the generator as seen in the accompanying photo.  The upper of the two long plates is 115 cm long by 10 cm wide while the lower is 136 cm by 9 cm wide.  The “specifications” plate detailed in Artifact 2018-001 is shown above the two name plates.  All these items were detached from the generator during the initial phase of decommissioning. 

This Leeds and Northrup galvanometer was used to detect and measure very small currents before the advent of digital ammeters.  The current, passing through a coil on which a mirror is attached, induces a magnetic field which causes the mirror to deflect.  The direction of deflection, as well as the extent of the deflection, indicates the polarity and size of the voltage applied.  Low resistance shunts, one of which can be seen in the left-hand photo, could be used to vary the sensitivity of the instrument.  These would be attached across the terminals seen in the right-hand photo. The unit shown was manufactured by Leeds and Northrup in Philadelphia, USA.

This large (32 cm long) electron tube was used as a switching tube in a high-voltage power supply in the Accelerator Physics Branch at CRNL.  Manufactured by e2v Industries in England, this CX1140 hydrogen thyratron was capable of switching peak loads of up to 1000A at voltages up to 25 kV.  High current loads are often difficult to switch off because of a continuation of the arc across the contacts. That problem is avoided with a thyratron.   

An RCA 6655 photomultiplier tube.  This tube, with a nominal diameter of 5 cm, was a 10-stage unit that operated at a cathode-anode voltage of 1250 V.  It had an amplification of about one million.  These photomultipliers were often coupled to scintillators (plastic or sodium-iodide based), which produced light pulses when struck by gamma rays.  The signals, proportional to the gamma ray energy, provided much of the early data on nuclear decay.  This particular tube was used for measurements in Bldg. 145 at CRNL. Several thousand, much improved and larger, versions of these tubes were used in the SNO neutrino experiment in Sudbury to look for scintillations in the large heavy-water vessel.

This personal “name badge” dosimeter, encased in a plastic medium, was presented to Colin Mawson on his retirement from AECL in 1979. The dosimeters, originally called film badges because they contained a radiation-sensitive film, were upgraded in the 1970s to allow a variety of dose measurements. They were carried at waist height and served both as an identification badge as well as a dosimeter. The two lower  photos show a dosimeter of this vintage opened to display the inside.  In the right-hand photo of the exploded view, the main thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) holder has been taken out of its normal position.  Note the absorbers made of different materials.  These allow some differentiation of the energy of the radiation impinging on the various elements of the dosimeter.

These personal “pocket” dosimeters were used extensively to allow rapid checking of received radiation dosage.  They were used to measure gamma and x-ray radiation.  The ~12 cm long dosimeters had a range of 0-200 mR and were based on a miniature ionization chamber. In usage an anode is charged up to a positive potential as is a quartz fiber.  The anode and quartz fiber then are repelled from each other and the fiber is deflected.  Ionization due to received radiation reduces the charge on the anode and decreases the deflection of the quartz fiber.  The amount of the deflection, which can be seen by looking down the length of the chamber, is proportional to the radiation dose received.

A 15 cm long, 1.9 cm diameter, personal dosimeter based on a miniature Geiger-Mueller tube, high-voltage and detection circuitry and an alarming (audio and/or visual) system all of which were potted in epoxy and housed in an aluminum tube. A compact 4V battery housed in the aluminum tube external to the epoxy section, but with a contact to the circuitry, provided the required electrical energy. The version shown here would produce a flashing red signal at a pre-set dose rate. The versions with an audible alarm (chirp) were known as “Chirpee dosimeters”. Versions with a dose range 0-2R/h up to 0-200 R/h were made by this manufacturer.

A compact, rapid-response, reusable neutron detectors developed at CRNL.  The 15 cm long detector consists of a polymer gel in a tube.  Tiny droplets of superheated liquid are dispersed throughout the clear polymer.  When used as a detector, the cap on the tube is tightened to decrease the tube volume resulting in a slightly elevated pressure on the gel.   When a neutron strikes a droplet, the droplet immediately vaporizes forming a visible gas bubble in the gel.  The number of droplets provides a measure of the neutron dose.  The formulation can be adjusted for a wide range of neutron dosages and the bubbles can be counted directly or through the use of an automated counter.

A digital clock retirement gift modelled on a ~1/3 scale accelerator beam-line scattering chamber.  The full-scale device was used extensively on the beamline of a low-energy (up to several MeV) accelerator to investigate channeling in crystals and to measure oxidation rates of various materials.  Crystals of the material under study would be placed in the scattering chamber, which also served as a high-vacuum enclosure, and the adjusting mechanism mounted outside the chamber, but connected through a vacuum seal to the mount holding the crystal, allowed accurate alignment of the crystal relative to the probing particle beam.

The original control room clock from the 25 MW NPD reactor at Rolphton, ON.  The overall panel size is 45 cm by 83 cm.  The clock is a nominal 12” clock (glass face 27 cm).  The second photograph shows the back of the panel.  The third photograph shows NPD operator Julian Bayley in the control room in 1965.  At that time the panel contained two clocks.  The fourth photograph was taken in 1982 at which time the right–hand clock had been removed and the space was replaced by a blanking plate. The final photograph shows the original 1959 blueprint from the Self-Winding Clock Co. Inc. (Brooklyn N.Y.) dated 10 April 1959.

A large photograph taken, 02 October 1982, at a reunion marking the 20^th anniversary of the start-up of the 25 MW NPD reactor at Rolphton, ON.  Photo is mounted on a 50 cm by 75 cm panel and is surrounded by autographs and an identification label.  It is unknown when the autographing took place.

A large, mounted and autographed, photo on a 50 cm by 75 cm display board. The photo was taken at the start-up of the 25 MW NDP reactor at Rolphton, ON in 1962. The autographs added on the display board were added at a later date, probably on the occasion of the gathering of personnel for 20th anniversary photo displayed in Artifact 2018-007. The second photo has been added here to assist in the identification of the participants.

A large (53 cm by 122 cm) mounted, multi-material. display panel showing a cutaway of the NPD reactor and of the overall flow chart framed with an aluminum frame.  This board is believed to have been used at the Public Information Center at Darlington G.S. and was retrieved during renovations of the Center by Julian Bayley.  Julian had been one of the early Operators at NPD and completed his Ontario Hydro career as an Operator at Darlington G.S.

The lower photo shows a name tag (possibly from an office door) that was attached to the display board when it was donated to the Society.

Front and rear views of an accelerating segment used in the assembly of the Industrial Materials Pulsed Electron Linear Accelerator (IMPELA).  Two of the segment faces shown in the first photograph would be brazed together to form an accelerating segment while two of the faces shown in the second photo would form a radiofrequency (rf) coupling cavity.  A complete, 10 MeV accelerator consists of 29 accelerating cavities and 28 coupling cavities brazed together to form a ~3.25 m long structure.  Each segment is made of oxygen-free, high-conductivity copper, is machined to a very specific shape to a high degree of accuracy and is then fine-tuned to resonate at a frequency of 1.3 GHz.  The IMPELA units generated an average electron beam power of 50 kW.

Special cooling is required to maintain the physical dimensions (which determine the operating frequency) of the structure during high power operation and the holes around the circumference formed the cooling channels for the structure.  The plumbing lines to the water-cooled structure are seen in the right-hand photograph which shows the prototype accelerator installed in the shielded room in Bldg. 610 at Chalk River.

The segment above was a test unit presented to J. McKeown, who first proposed the IMPELA series, on the occasion of his retirement and was donated to the Society.

One of the twenty-four “drift-tubes” in the Alvarez proton accelerator that was part of the High Current Test Facility (HCTF) which operated in Bldg. 610 at CRNL during the 1960s and 1970s.  The HCTF was part of a program investigating electronuclear breeding – a process for producing intense neutron sources by spallation through the collision of high energy protons with heavy elements.  The “electrically-produced” neutrons could then be captured in a thorium blanket around the accelerator target to produce fissile material.

The left-hand photo shows the face of the drift-tube with the central beam hole while the middle photo shows the opposite face with the surface removed to expose the quadrupole electromagnet that was used to provide focussing for the proton beam.  The ~ 15 cm diameter drift-tubes were made of oxygen-free high-conductivity (OFHC) copper and were machined and brazed in the CRNL machine shops.

The drift-tube (with a foreshortened stem) was retained during dismantling of the facility and was presented to one of the researchers as a retirement memento.

This is the cast-aluminum “Specifications plate” (front and back view) that had been mounted on the 22 MW, Metropolitan-Vickers, electric generator at the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) reactor located at Rolphton Ontario which generated the first nuclear-based electricity in Canada. The heavy-water, natural uranium, pressure-tube based reactor started operation in 1962 and continued to operate until 1987.  For much of that period it also served as a training center for many of the operators needed to staff the larger Douglas Point, Pickering and Bruce generating stations.

The plate was mounted on the side of the generator as seen in the accompanying photo.  The plate itself is 35 cm by 22 cm in size and was detached from the generator during the initial phase of decommissioning.  The photo at the bottom shows a long nameplate mounted below the specifications plate.  It and the corresponding plate on the opposite side of the generator are discussed as Artifact 2018-004.

A Ludlum, Model 43-5, alpha-survey detector using a zinc-sulphide scintillation crystal doped with silver as the main detector.  The crystal is coupled to a 3.8 cm diameter (nominal 1.5 inch) magnetically-shielded photomultiplier tube. The probe has an overall length of 37 cm and the probe has an active area of 76 square cm.  The detector window is made of aluminized polyester which is opaque to light, yet thin enough to admit alpha particles.  This instrument was used by the Radiation and Industrial Safety (RIS) group at Chalk River.