Document ATM-NUCL-GNL-FRA UN 54411 - Saclay Nuclear Research Centre

Dimensions: 19,3 X 13,7

Earlier results having indicated that a large-scale research and development programme in the field of atomic energy was feasible in France, the Government decided in 1948 to establish a large scientific and techical research centre devoted to this new field. A site for the Centre was selected on the Saclay plateau, 20 kilometres south of Paris and on this 120 hectare site began, in 1949, construction of groups of workshops and laboratories in which were eventually installed both the heavy equipment needed for research in nuclear physics - a 5 million volt Van de Graaf electrostatic accelerator and a 25 Mev cyclotron - and a high-power atomic reactor. The Saclay Nuclear Research Centre is now in full operation. Its buildings cover more than 600000 square meters of floor space, in which are installed laboratories for research, pure and applied, in nuclear physics, physical chemistry, industrial chemistry, metallurgy and biology. The staff numbers some 2000 of whom some 400 are qualified engineers and scientists. Under a plan initiated in 1952, the equipment resources of the Centre are being greatly expanded by the building of a large accelerator and a reactor with a very high flux shich are currently under construction and should go into service at the end of this year.

Here is an exterior view of the Saclay Atomic Pile EL-2, a heavy-water reactor, which develops a sustained power of 2400 kilowatts of heat released. Besides producing a small quantity of plutonium, it is used to prepare radioisotopes, to study the destructive effects of radiation on the materials of future reactors and for research on neutrons.

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54411

Image editing: B/W

Protection period to: 1956-12-31
Geographical information: France

Protection period duration: 0

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Permission: No permission necessary.

Physical usability: Without limits

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