Evolving Mission: The Synchrotron Era

Research Facilities
Research Programs
Research Divisions
Technical Services
Accomplishments
Theorists
Argonne Distinguished Fellows
Emeritus
User Registration
Library Services

By the mid-1950s, industry was becoming interested in nuclear power -- a resource which had been virtually monopolized by the U.S. government by mandate of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946. In 1954, shortly after President Eisenhower proposed his Atoms for Peace program, the act was broadened. Nuclear energy research began to move into universities and private industry. Argonne no longer concentrated on reactor science alone; it was turning into a multipurpose laboratory, with stronger ties to basic research than ever before. Ten years after Argonne was chartered, it began work on a high-energy research facility based on a weak-focusing synchrotron. In 1957, the Zero Gradient Synchrotron, a huge atom-smasher, was authorized. It was the beginning of a new era, changing Argonne from a virtual in-house "job shop" for the Atomic Energy Commission into a user-oriented laboratory accessible to all sectors of society.

Albert Crewe (right), Argonne director from 1961 to 1967, explains the ZGS Cockroft-Walton preaccelerator

With the development of the Zero Gradient Synchrotron, Argonne became a user-oriented laboratory accessible to all sectors of society. Albert Crewe (right), Argonne director from 1961 to 1967, explains the ZGS Cockroft-Walton preaccelerator. (Click the image to see a larger photo.)

During the 1970s, the potential for non-nuclear energy sources grew, and the public's concern with environmental issues deepened. The breeder reactor program, aimed at developing a reactor that produced plutonium faster than it consumed it, was expanded in 1973, during the energy crisis. In 976, a demonstration breeder reactor plant on the Clinch River at Oak Ridge, Tenn., was endorsed by the Ford administration. Argonne scientists calculated the physics of large uranium and plutonium reactor cores, developed new instrumentation, tested fuels and materials, and assembled and simulated full-scale reactor cores for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor. In 1977, Argonne's mandate began to expand to include non-nuclear research areas -- advanced batteries, magnetohydrodynamics, solar energy collectors, heavy ion fusion.

Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, Argonne scientists designed and built state-of-the-art facilities and achieved a high rate of innovation. The lab quickly earned a reputation for developing frontier technology in all areas of basic research. Nevertheless, nuclear reactors were becoming increasingly controversial, and their support in Washington was eroding. In 1983, the Senate stopped funding the Clinch River Breeder Reactor, a program that reflected 40 percent of Argonne's budget. Its elimination meant severe cutbacks in budget and staff and a dilution of the laboratory's mission.