Argonne Fast Source Reactor

The Argonne Fast Source Reactor (AFSR) was designed and built in 1958 near EBR-I on the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS, which was incorporated into the new Idaho National Laboratory in 2005). AFSR was placed in operation in October of 1959 with a design power of one kilowatt.

The AFSR was designed to supplement the existing facilities of the Idaho Divison of Argonne National Laboratory. It was designed as a readily available source of both fast and thermal neutrons for use as follows:

- developing, testing, calibrating, and standardizing various counters;
- Preparation of radioactive metallic foils used in the development of counting and radiochemical techniques;
- checking out complex experimental systems before operation in other reactors;
- and development of potential experiments in the fast reactor field.

In the fall of 1970, this reactor was moved to a new location adjacent to the ZPPR facility at the Argonne West site of the NRTS. The reactor is now shutdown and defueled.

For more information, visit https://www.ne.anl.gov/About/reactors....