Early Days
The first decades at Chalk River and Deep River
Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories arose out of a 1942 collaboration between British and Canadian nuclear researchers which saw the Montreal Laboratory established under the National Research Council. By 1944, the Chalk River facility was opened and, in September 1945, it saw the first nuclear reactor outside of the United States, ZEEP, become operational.
Aerial view of future CRNL site before any construction took place. Photo source- Natural Resources Canada.
View at CRNL site in late fall of 1944 when Defence Industries Canada were assembling equipment and facilities for construction of laboratory. Photo source- AECL.
View of first construction in fall 1944. Photo source- AECL.
Plant Road, 2 December 1944. Photo source- AECL.
Staff bus, 05 January 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Rock foundations for Bldg. 100 (NRX), 05 January 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Building 100 (NRX) pile foundations, 18 January 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Site overview, spring 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Building 105 (ZEEP), 10 April 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Suction end of water intake pipe, 22 April 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Overview, 02 May 1945. Photo source- AECL.
2nd plate, lower shield for NRX, 11 May 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Coffer dam and floats for intake pipe, 29 May 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Administrative area, 13 June 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Lower shield of NRX, 14 June 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Plant as seen from across river, 20 June 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Looking south from NRX, 21 June 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Overview with NRX and ZEEP, 21 June 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Fire hall, 26 July 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Cross river view 29 July 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Graphite and bottom of ZEEP tank, 28 July 1945. Photo source- AECL.
ZEEP Control rods in upper position, 18 August 1945. Photo source- AECL.
NRX pile erection, 21 August 1945. Photo source- AECL
Fuel rods in situ in ZEEP, 04 September 1945. Photo source- AECL.
Bldg. 420 (heating plant) under construction, 10 September 1945. Photo source- AECL.
NRX nearing completion, 19 September 1946. Photo source- AECL.
The construction of Deep River began in 1944 to accommodate employees of the nearby Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories.
The first houses in Deep River. “Wartime Houses” shipped from Brownsburg, PQ. Photo dated 02 December 1944. Photo Source – AECL.
Gatehouse located at entrance to Deep River restricting entry to authorized personnel only. Location approximately where Deep River Road intersects with Huron and Algonquin. Photo source –AECL.
Wartime Houses on Troyes. Spring 1945. Photo source – AECL.
Wartime Houses on Algonquin. Spring 1945. Photo source AECL.
Greenwood cottage on waterfront in June 1945. Family relationship to location unknown. Photo source – AECL
Another winter view of first houses. Winter 1944/1945. Photo source – AECL.
Construction started on houses on Beach Avenue. Number 1 Beach as of 22 May 1945. This house was occupied originally, and still is, by G. Laurence and his descendants. Photo source –AECL.
Number 2 Beach under construction on 22 May 1945. Photo source – AECL.
Number 21 Beach under construction on 22 May 1945. Photo source – AECL
Construction at 2 Parkdale as of 15 July 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
Construction on Parkdale in late May 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
Duplex houses on Troyes in late May 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
Excavation started for Cockcroft School viewed on 16 July 1945. Note advanced stage of work on 1 Beach in background compared to 22 May photo. Photo source – AECL.
Status of construction on 8 Troyes on 16 July 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
Status of school construction on 14 November 1945. Photo Source-AECL
Completed construction at 4 Troyes on 16 July 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
School construction status, viewed from Ottawa River side, 04 December 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
Construction status on Staff House 14 November 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
Riverside view of Staff Hotel construction. Photo Source – AECL.
Completed Staff Hotel viewed from Alder. Photo source- AECL.
Construction extending further west in town. View on 04 November 1945 from Ridge Road looking at Alder. Photo Source – AECL.
Completed Staff Hotel viewed from River. Photo source- AECL.
Deep River Road and Glendale, summer of 1945. Note the existence of road signs. Photo Source – AECL.
Construction of Town Administration Building (later Town Hall) and bus garages on 14 November 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
The Woodpile. 30 July 1945. Numerous houses (poorly insulated), none privately-owned have been or are being built by this point of 1945 and more would soon be added. Most had wood-fired furnaces. Photo Source – AECL.
Steam Shovel used in construction. Photo Source – AECL.
Water tower in place by 07 May 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
Crib for water intake line 30 July 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
First rudimentary water source in 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
Pumphouse excavation status on 16 July 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
Water mains being installed on Algonquin by early May 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
Pump well as of 22 August 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
Preparing for sewers on Alder Crescent 08 August 1945. Photo Source – AECL
Construction of the Imhoff tank for sewage treatment on 22 August 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
Stack for Power House in position. 08 August 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
Deep River Hospital – date unknown – viewed from Montcalm. (This location later became the A&P store and is now used as office space by CNL staff.) Photo Source – AECL.
Placing Boilers in Power House on 22 August 1945. Photo Source – AECL.
Deep River Community Centre - date unknown – viewed from frontage on Ridge Road. Photo Source – AECL.
Shopping plaza. Photo source – AECL.
17 Beach Avenue. This “three-story” house was built specifically for the large family of Sir John Cockcroft. It was later occupied by Dr. David and Mrs. Keys and then by the E. Perryman family. It has been extensively modified by its present owner. Photo Source – AECL.
Deep River in 1955. Photo Source – AECL. Photo and text from “Deep River” by Joan Melvin.
Most Chalk River staff lived in Deep River and Pembroke, about 20 minutes and 45 minutes away by road respectively.
Plant Road in December 1944. While some farm tracks may have existed on the properties that were expropriated for the Plant site in 1944, nothing in the way of a road capable of handling significant traffic existed. A new road from the village of Chalk River to the Plant site was started in the fall of 1944.
Photo source – AECL.
First Staff bus. Under winter conditions the frozen ground along the new road was able to support some vehicles and by January 1945 a “staff bus” was able to make it to the Plant site.
Photo source – AECL.
The “Cattle Cars”. As the working population at the Plant began to grow, there was the need for more and larger vehicles for transporting staff from Deep River, Pembroke and Chalk River to the Plant site. The “buses” are described in the June 1967 issue of AECL Review thus: “For a while, back in 1945, three tractor trailer units were used to carry employees from Pembroke to the Plant and from Pembroke to Deep River. These vehicles were dubbed “cattle cars” by those who used them and the name wasn’t inappropriate. Standard long-haul trailers, they had a few windows near the roof for ventilation;” and “Benches ran the length of the trailer on each side and across both ends. One of the Fraser Brace employees acted as conductor. In addition to punching tickets and opening and closing the doors for the pick-up and delivery of passengers, the conductor was expected to fire the box stove. A Quebec heater, this stove was the only source of heat in the trailer. The conductor was also responsible for counting the passengers, not an easy task when the count ran up to 90 and often included standees.” We also learn: “The fleet at this time included 10 new buses each with a seating capacity of 33, in addition to the three “cattle cars”. Road conditions were often questionable, the article continues: “In the spring of 1945 the Plant road was impassable at one point. Buses were unloaded, the passengers walked across the rough section, and were picked up by trucks for the remainder of the trip”.
Photo source – AECL.
RCAF surplus buses. Shortly after the end of the war, a large number of RCAF buses become available and these replaced the tractor-trailer units used earlier. From the “History of Deep River” we learn; “These buses were 28 feet in length and had seven jump-seats in the aisle. Latecomers were issued boards by the driver and these were fitted between the regular seats and collected on arrival”. The use of the extra seats undoubtedly led to the CRNL method of exiting the buses at the Plant. This was always done in an orderly manner with passengers from the front row, right-hand seat, disembarking first followed by the ones across the aisle and then the second row, etc. Many a new employee who might have found a seat near the back of the bus would be embarrassed on their first trip by having stood up to march down the aisle before their turn.
Photo source – AECL.
The next generation of buses. The surplus RCAF buses were gradually replaced in the late 1950s by a new fleet of more modern buses. Because “hourly rate” staff worked on a 40 hour per week schedule and “staff” worked on a 37.5 hour per week schedule, service between the Plant and both Pembroke and Deep River was provided by two sets of buses; the hourly rate buses arrived at the Plant 15 minutes before the staff ones and left 15 minutes later. Some staff members, particularly those from the distant reaches of the Plant, were very happy to be able to catch an hourly-rate bus after they had forgotten to check their watches near leaving time. The buses followed specific routes in Deep River and Pembroke with the Plant-bound Deep River ones detouring often to top-up with passengers at the staff hotels where 100+ employees might be waiting.
Photo source – AECL.
1970s era buses. A set of new buses began to appear in the 1970s. However, the ridership began to decline as staff began to use private cars more often. Around 1990 AECL decided that it was no longer reasonable to run two sets of buses each day and the buses on the “staff schedule” were dropped. Ridership continued to drop and eventually AECL decided to no longer support the buses. Existing coaches were sold to a private company, Thom Transit, which then continued to operate routes from Pembroke and Deep River to CRNL. Most of the AECL bus drivers obtained alternate jobs at CRNL and Thom Transit had an arrangement with them to add an hour at each end of their day to drive the buses for them.
Photo source – AECL.
Limo and Car service. In addition to the buses, NRC (later AECL) operated a small fleet of cars and one or two limousines that were used for a variety of purposes. In the early days the main route to the outside world from Chalk River was via the passenger trains that then ran reasonably frequently. Passengers would be transported to and from Deep River to the Chalk River train station by the Company. Newly-hired employees were met at the Chalk River station by a driver and car. These vehicles were also used for touring important visitors, transporting personnel to same-day meetings in Ottawa as well as ferrying staff or visitors to the Pembroke airport. There was also a shuttle service that ran several times a day from the Plant to Deep River and could be used by staff for doctor or dental appointments etc. This writer, who was on the list of blood-donor volunteers, recalls being called one day to donate and was transported from the Plant to the Deep River hospital. Following the procedure the doctor on duty asked me if my preference was “gin or rye”. I responded rye and was then poured precisely one ounce from a bottle in the cupboard and told to sip it slowly over the next ten minutes after which I could leave. The Red Cross, who operated regular blood-donor clinics in Deep River, never did adopt this practise.
Photo source – AECL.
Service interruption. During the 1970s Pembroke was connected by road to Chalk River and the Plant solely by the TransCanada Highway. A critical point on this highway was the bridge across the Petawawa River in the village of Petawawa. On Saturday evening, 6 May 1972, this critical link developed a 1.3 m sag in the middle due to damage to the bridge footings. This spelled problems for the 600-700 AECL employees located on the Pembroke side of the bridge. The June 1972 issue of the AECL Review reports; “By late Sunday afternoon an arrangement had been made by CRNL with CFB Petawawa and CPR officials to bring three Budd railway cars and crews from Montreal to operate a rail shuttle service over the nearby railroad bridge which had remained intact. Bus schedules were changed to meet the emergency, company buses carrying employees from Pembroke and area to the Petawawa rail station, and other buses (ordinarily used from Deep River to the Plant) picking them up on the west side of the river.” Deep River-based employees were asked to carpool during this period. Eventually a temporary Bailey bridge was constructed over the river and life returned to normal.
Photo source – AECL.
Photo source – AECL.
Debarking from the Budd rail shuttle at Petawawa.
Re-establishing the highway link.
Evening bus lineup. The lineup of buses (1981) in the evening returning employees to the Pembroke area as well as Deep River. The Pembroke area buses, which had the greater distance to travel, left first and were parked at the starting end of the lineup.
Photo source – AECL.
Early transport at Whiteshell Laboratories (1963). The terrain at WL is similar to that at CRNL and it is therefore not surprising that similar “road” problems were encountered in the establishment of the infrastructure there. This 1963 photo from the March 1972 issue of AECL Review shows the conditions at that time.
Photo source – AECL.
Melnick Bus Lines. With its experience at CRNL and the smaller work force than CRNL, AECL contracted, a private, local company, Melnick Bus Lines to transport employees from their homes in Pinawa to and from the laboratory. Melnick Bus Lines used a variety of diesel and gas powered buses for this service.
Photo Source – Manitoba Transit Heritage Association
Computers have played a crucial role within the nuclear industry for theoretical and design calculations, data acquisition and handling and control systems.
Related Links
Anglefire Computer Image collection
http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/B205/ecd.html
The Pace 231 R analogue computer http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/EAI/EAI.231R.1961.102646219.pdf
The Bendix G-20
http://www.liquisearch.com/bendix_g-20
The CDC 6600 Design http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/CDC/CDC.6600.1963.102641207.pdf
The CDC 6600 Five Year Reign
http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/supercomputers/10/33
Historical interlude: from the mainframe to the minicomputer part 3, DEC and Data General
https://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/historical-interlude-from-the-mainframe-to-the-minicomputer-part-3-dec-and-data-general/
A restored and operating PDP-1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EWQYAfuMYw
Distant computer data-link established. A direct data-link was established in 1968 between the WL computing center and the IBM 360/65 computer at the University of Manitoba, 120 km away in Winnipeg. Before the linkage was installed programmers had to transport packages containing as many as 20 000 computer cards to Winnipeg.
Paper tapes. Data and program code could be entered into the Datatron either through step-by-step entries via mechanical switches or through paper tape readers. Unfortunately the Society has not been able to acquire surviving samples of the paper tapes used to date but the picture above, taken from one of the Datatron manuals, shows both the profile of a tape (~2 cm width) and the interpretation of the code punched into it.
Photo source – the Society.
Photo source – the Society.
In early 1958 AECL set up a Nuclear Power Plant Division (NPPD) in Toronto. To meet its computing needs NPPD, which later evolved to become Power Projects, soon acquired an electron-tube based analogue computer, the PACE 231 R. A complete description and full specifications for this model of computer can be found at link C3. The AECL unit, shown above, was later retired from service and was donated in 1974 to the Canadian Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa.
Photo source- Canadian Science and Technology Museum, artifact 740017.
Photo source- Canadian Science and Technology Museum, artifact 740017.
Bendix G-20 to arrive at CRNL. An announcement in the local newspaper, the North Renfrew Times, on 18 January 1961 of the imminent installation of a transistorized electronic computer, “the G-20”, at CRNL to succeed the Datatron. Some specifications for the G-20 computer are given in link C4.
Photo source – the Society.
Photo source – the Society.
Punch cards. A new form of computer input arrived with the G-20 - paper punch cards that could be read rapidly by a reader. These 8.4 cm by 18.6 cm cards were used both to input programs and data. The input for a single 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.
Photo source – the Society.
Photo source – the Society.
Tape reels. Large (~30 cm diameter) tape reels also began to be employed with the G-20 for input and output. The August 1967 issue of AECL Review contained a large article on computers and reported the following: “In 1960 AECL had two computers. Now there are 26 at CRNL, two at Whiteshell, two at Power Projects, three at Commercial Products and one at Head Office. The CRNL computers serve the needs of the site and do some Whiteshell and Power Projects programs as well” ; “The digital computers at CRNL are the CDC G-20 and CDC 3100, a PDP-1, a PDP-4, a PDP-5, ten PDP-8s, a PDP-9, an H-610 and two H-21s” ; “The WNRE computation center is equipped with a Honeywell H620 computer, together with a card reader and punch, line printer, magnetic tape reader and a graph plotter”; “A much larger computer is needed (at WNRE) for sophisticated problems met in reactor physics calculations. The University of Manitoba has installed such a unit and WNRE has made arrangements with the university to run large problems on this computer”.
Photo source – the Society.
Photo source – the Society.
Typical computer output. The January 1967 issue of AECL Review reported that a CDC-3100 computer had been installed at CRNL as a satellite computer for the G-20. Output was generally produced by line printers on to reams of nominal 12 in by 14 in fan-fold paper and was distributed from the computing center to a number of locations by delivery trucks several times a day.
Photo source – the Society.
Photo source – the Society.
Computers have played a crucial role within the nuclear industry for theoretical and design calculations, for data acquisition and handling and for control systems. The photo above shows the status of data acquisition and “computing” about 1950. L-R: J. Kuehner, A. Bromley, E. Almqvist. A. Bromley stated the following: "My research group in the Control Room for the Chalk River 4 MV Van de Graaff accelerator. All of the instrumentation was vacuum-tube based and behind us on the right was a 50-channel multi-channel analyzer, each channel of which had to be separately adjusted at least once a day because the circuitry drifted continually. Our only local laboratory computer at the time was the Marchant desk unit shown here."
Photo source – AECL.
Photo source – AECL.
A big jump in data acquisition systems came about around 1955 with the development of stable, transistorized multi-channel analyzers. (L-R) J. Hardwick and F. Goulding are shown above at CRNL next to their 100 channel “kicksorter” or pulse-height analyzer. CRNL led the world in nuclear electronics development in this era. Ten years after this photo, industry had advanced the pulse-height analyzer development to units that had in excess of 4000 channels.
The next 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 photo above (link C2) shows an essentially, complete Datatron 205 found in Portland, Oregon. Versions of the module on the upper right, which had a large number of blinking lights to indicate the operation of the computer, appeared in many science fiction movies for several decades after the development of the computer. The memory drum had a capacity of “4000 words”. A large number of programming and maintenance manuals have been donated to the Society by a retired CRNL employee who worked with the Datatron.
Photo source - http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/B205/ecd.html
Photo source - http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/B205/ecd.html
A recent (2017) photo of the actual CRNL Datatron as it sits neglected outdoors after being declared obsolete many years ago.
Photo source – the Society.
Photo source – the Society.
The nameplate on the CRNL Electrodata Datatron.
Photo source – the Society.
Photo source – the Society.
The CDC 6600 Control Console. The CDC 6600 continued to be the major mainframe computer at CRNL for an extended period.
Photo source – AECL.
Photo source – AECL.
In the early 1960s the opportunity for using computers not only for data gathering and numerical calculations but also as critical parts of control systems for large experimental facilities was recognized. The Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) had been producing a series of logic modules and its customers and engineers convinced the management to combine these modules into a “control computer”. The following is extracted from link C7: “One of DEC’s oldest computer customers was Atomic Energy of Canada, which had purchased one of the first PDP-1 computers for its Chalk River facility. The company proceeded to buy a PDP-4 to control the reactor at Chalk River, but the computer was not quite able to handle all the duties it had been assigned. To solve this problem, Gordon Bell proposed in early 1963 that rather than create custom circuitry to meet Atomic Energy’s needs, DEC should build a smaller computer that could serve as a front end to interface with the PDP-4 and provide the needed functionality. Rather than just create a system limited to Atomic Energy’s needs, however, Bell decided to design the machine so it could also function as an independent general-purpose computer. DEC named this new computer the PDP-5.” The CRNL PDP-1, which was used at the tandem accelerator facility, arrived at CRNL in 1963. In 1984, after 21 years of service, it was retired and replaced by a Perkin-Elmer 3230. It was donated to the Science North facility in Sudbury. Unfortunately it was later discarded. A number of PDP-1s have been restored at various locations in the USA. Link C8 shows an excellent video of a restored PDP-1 in operation and demonstrates the famous Starwars program being loaded from paper tape and then running on the computer. The photo above shows both the PDP-5 (on the left) and the PDP-4 (on the right) discussed above in the NRU control room with some of the main contributors to the installation.
Photo source – AECL.
Photo source – AECL.
The central-computer control console in 1979. L-R. P. McGandy, B. Ostrom and D. McPherson at the console of what was at that date a combined CDC 6600/Cyber 170 mainframe computer.
