alastair philip wiper documents oak ridge national laboratory in US

Inside the oak ridge national laboratory in tennessee, USA

Alastair Philip Wiper documents the inside of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, USA, in the photography project, The Secret City. In the series, the photographer captures the machinery and spaces inside the infrastructure, which was established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project. The laboratory’s first purpose was to refine uranium and plutonium for the production of atomic bombs, and it became a town that was built quickly to house workers, with the population reaching 75,000 during World War II. The photographer’s name for the project is not random. It is because the community was called The Secret City, referring to its existence being hidden. Most residents did not know the purpose of their work until the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan in 1945.

After the war, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory changed its mission and became a national center for nuclear research, materials science, biology, energy studies, and computer technology. Today, it is one of the largest science and energy laboratories under the U.S. Department of Energy system. Through the photographs of Alastair Philip Wiper, viewers are afforded the inner workings of the laboratory, from the space housing the first continuously operating nuclear reactor in the world to the major facility of the most powerful reactor-based neutron source in the US. In the images, the photographer managed to document the spaces and what resides in them, including the old machinery and control stations as well as the upgraded tools used for the nuclear research.

all images courtesy of Alastair Philip Wiper

alastair philip wiper captures stations in research facility

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory site includes laboratories, hot cells, reactors, accelerators, computing centers, and utility lines. The design of the laboratory reflects its functions: large buildings for reactors, long corridors for accelerators, and shielded cells for radiochemical work. Utility drain lines manage water and waste produced during experiments. Control rooms operate reactors and accelerators. The facility combines steel, concrete, shielding materials, electronic systems, and high-power computing hardware. In Alastair Philip Wiper’s series, the photographer goes through these areas, even capturing the site’s first major project, the X-10 Graphite Reactor. It began operation in 1943 and ran until 1963 and was the first continuously operating nuclear reactor in the world.

Its purpose was to prove that plutonium could be produced for nuclear weapons, and after the war, the reactor was used to generate the first nuclear electricity. It also produced radioisotopes for medicine, agriculture, and industry, and these isotopes were used for cancer treatments, crop studies, and industrial testing. Another major facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory that the photographer captured is the High Flux Isotope Reactor. It remains the most powerful reactor-based neutron source in the US, producing medical isotopes, including plutonium-238, which is used in NASA space missions. Inside the reactor pools, spent nuclear fuel is stored. The blue glow that appears in the water is known as Cherenkov radiation, which shows the presence of recently irradiated fuel.

control room of the oldest nuclear reactor in the world, the X-10 Graphite Reactor

A US-based laboratory that also studies biological materials

One important instrument at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory that Alastair Philip Wiper photographed is the MaNDi neutron diffractometer. It studies biological materials by scattering neutrons off samples to map atomic structures, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, MaNDi was used to investigate the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 protease. The data supported drug development research for the vaccines later on.

The laboratory also houses the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center, where technicians handle radioactive isotopes inside hot cells using remote manipulators. One isotope, actinium-225, is being tested in clinical trials for leukemia and brain cancer treatment. The hot cells are enclosed rooms with thick shielding that allow remote operations without direct exposure. This, alongside other setups, makes up the series The Secret City, which aims to present the once war-oriented research facility turned into a nuclear research laboratory.

part of the Spallation Neutron Source particle accelerator