America's first national laboratory
Welcome to the virtual tour of Argonne National Laboratory.
Argonne is one of the U.S. Department of Energy's largest research
centers. It is also the nation's first national laboratory, chartered in
1946.
Argonne is a direct descendant of the University of Chicago's
Metallurgical Laboratory, part of the World War Two Manhattan Project. It was
at the Met Lab where, on Dec. 2, 1942, Enrico Fermi and his band of about 50
colleagues created the world's first controlled nuclear chain reaction in a
squash court at the University of Chicago. After the war, Argonne was given the
mission of developing nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes. Over the years,
Argonne's research expanded to include many other areas of science, engineering
and technology -- some of which are highlighted in this virtual tour. Argonne
is not and never has been a weapons laboratory.
Argonne is operated by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department
of Energy's Office of Science.
For more information about Argonne's programs and facilities, please follow
the Virtual Tour links to the left.
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