Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King with U. S. President Franklin D Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the Quebec Conference, 18 August 1943, at which the mechanism for cooperation on Tube Alloys was agreed upon
The Montreal Laboratory was a program established by the National Research Council of Canada during World War II to undertake nuclear research in collaboration with the United Kingdom, and to absorb some of the scientists and work of the Tube Alloys nuclear project in Britain. It became part of the Manhattan Project, and designed and built some of the world's first nuclear reactors.
After the Fall of France, some French scientists escaped to Britain with their stock of heavy water. They were temporarily installed in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, where they worked on reactor design. The MAUD Committee was uncertain whether this was relevant to the main task of Tube Alloys, that of building an atomic bomb, although there remained a possibility that a reactor could be used to breed plutonium, which might be used in one. It therefore recommended that they be relocated to the United States, and co-located with the Manhattan Project's reactor effort. Due to American concerns about security (many of the scientists were foreign nationals) and patent claims by the French scientists and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), it was decided to relocate them to Canada instead.
The Canadian government agreed to the proposal, and the Montreal Laboratory was established in a house belonging to McGill University; it moved to permanent accommodation at the Université de Montréal in March 1943. The first eight laboratory staff arrived in Montreal at the end of 1942. These were Bertrand Goldschmidt and Pierre Auger from France, George Placzek from Czechoslovakia, S. G. Bauer from Switzerland, Friedrich Paneth and Hans von Halban from Austria, and R. E. Newell and F. R. Jackson from Britain. The Canadian contingent included George Volkoff, Bernice Weldon Sargent and George Laurence, and promising young Canadian scientists such as J. Carson Mark, Phil Wallace and Leo Yaffe.
Although Canada was a major source of uranium ore and heavy water, these were controlled by the Americans. Anglo-American cooperation broke down, denying the Montreal Laboratory scientists access to the materials they needed to build a reactor. In 1943, the Quebec Agreement merged Tube Alloys with the American Manhattan Project. The Americans agreed to help build the reactor. Scientists who were not British subjects left, and John Cockcroft became the new director of the Montreal Laboratory in May 1944. The Chalk River Laboratories opened in 1944, and the Montreal Laboratory was closed in July 1946. Two reactors were built at Chalk River. The small ZEEP went critical on 5 September 1945, and the larger NRX on 21 July 1947. NRX was for a time the most powerful research reactor in the world.
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The MontrealLaboratory was a program established by the National Research Council of Canada during World War II to undertake nuclear research in collaboration...
became the director of the MontrealLaboratory. The Chalk River Laboratories opened in 1944, and in 1946 the MontrealLaboratory was closed. The project...
researchers which saw the MontrealLaboratory established under the National Research Council (NRC). By 1944, the Chalk River Laboratories (known as “Petawawa...
director of the MontrealLaboratory, and oversaw the development of the ZEEP and NRX reactors, and the creation of the Chalk River Laboratories. After the...
at the MontrealLaboratory in Canada. This became part of the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs. At Chalk River Laboratories, he worked...
nuclear research team at the MontrealLaboratory, where he was responsible for recruiting Canadian scientists. The laboratory later transferred to the Chalk...
co-operation between the Manhattan Project's Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago and the MontrealLaboratory. At the Combined Policy Committee meeting on 17 February...
Several transferred to Canada in 1943; the MontrealLaboratory and some later to the Chalk River Laboratories. The production of plutonium and neptunium...
particles" MontrealLaboratory 1951 Edwin M. McMillan Chemistry "for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements" Los Alamos Laboratory 1951...
went critical at Harwell on 15 August 1947. British staff at the MontrealLaboratory designed a larger reactor, known as BEPO, which went critical on...
reactor built at the Chalk River Laboratories near Chalk River, Ontario, Canada (which superseded the MontrealLaboratory for nuclear research in Canada)...
nuclear reactor Frédéric Joliot-Curie Hans von Halban MontrealLaboratory Chalk River Laboratories Frisch, Otto R. (1979). "Obituary: Lew Kowarski" (PDF)...
In 1943 he moved to Canada to work under George Placzek at the MontrealLaboratory of the joint British-Canadian atomic energy project. In October 1945...
Part of the deficit of technical knowledge was addressed by the MontrealLaboratory in Canada, where the ZEEP reactor went critical on 5 September 1945...
professor. During World War II he worked on the Manhattan Project at the MontrealLaboratory. From 1961 to 1970, he was the head of the department. From 1970...
Montreal was established in 1642 in what is now the province of Quebec, Canada. At the time of European contact the area was inhabited by the St. Lawrence...
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University is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter, the university bears...
protection, aerospace, electronics, agriculture, and laboratory measurements. Under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer,...
Canada Limited to work at the Manhattan Project's MontrealLaboratory, moving to the Chalk River Laboratories, on the banks of the Ottawa River, in Ontario...
also engaged in atomic fission research at the MontrealLaboratory, and later the Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario. Post-WWII, the NRC reverted to its...
cooperation between the Manhattan's Project's Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago and the MontrealLaboratory. At the Combined Policy Committee meeting on 17 February...
a joint Canadian-British nuclear research laboratory, the MontrealLaboratory, was established in Montreal in 1942, under the National Research Council...
dates back to 1942 when a joint British-Canadian laboratory, the MontrealLaboratory, was set up in Montreal, Quebec, under the administration of the National...
the director of the joint British-Canadian MontrealLaboratory. A British mission to the Los Alamos Laboratory was led by Chadwick, and later Peierls, which...
became the director of the Anglo-Canadian MontrealLaboratory. The British mission to the Los Alamos Laboratory was headed by Chadwick, and later Peierls...
Radiation Laboratory. Cockcroft became the director of the joint British-Canadian MontrealLaboratory. A British mission to the Los Alamos Laboratory was led...
scientist working at Los Alamos (Louis Slotin), and hosting the MontrealLaboratory which took over from Tube Alloys. Canada would continue to supply...
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