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.