Delta Force said:
All the major nuclear reactor technologies with the exception of molten salt were conceived at Argonne during the Manhattan Project, although they weren't necessarily constructed and tested by the time Rickover had to make his decision.
Please provide a reference or source to substantiate that claim.
Not all major nuclear technologies were conceived during the Manhattan project, nor were all but the molten salt conceived by the MetLab or Argonne National Lab. From one of my books on nuclear technology, it is stated that, "Conceptual studies were initiated at Oak Ridge in 1944 on a high-temperature gas-cooled power reactor concept that was suggested by Farrington Daniels." Subsequently, one gas-cooled reactor was constructed at Oak Ridge during WWII and a second gas-cooled reactor was constructed at Brookhaven National Lab shortly after the war. Certainly that was during the Manhattan project, but not at the Met Lab.
Ref: Walter H. Zinn, Frank K. Pittman, John F. Hogerton, "Nuclear Power, U.S.A., McGraw-Hill Book Company, McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1964In the November 1952 issue of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, one can read the transcript of an interview with Dr. Lawrence Hafstad, director of AEC's Division of Reactor Development. In response to the question, "When did the development of power reactors and power-production reactors begin?", Hafstad indicates that "some experimental work was done on power problems in the late stages of the war and early in 1946." Hafstad cites Farrington's work at Oak Ridge "for a power reactor, which was quest a straightforward, direct approach to the problem. It soon became clear however that we needed to know a lot more about the behavior of various material under the unusual conditions of stress which existed in a reactor." Hafstad subsequently cites the Canadian heavy-water reactor at Chalk River, which was based on a design from Argonne. Breeder concepts were pursued by Argonne and Knolls (GE), but it seems after the war. Hafstad concludes his response with "A third major element in that program was the development of a reactor for submarine propulsion. The Navy was instrumental in starting investigations toward nuclear propulsion at Oak Ridge and at General Electric in Schenectady. In 1948, the Oak Ridge project was transferred to Argonne and became the Submarine Thermal Reactor project. The work at Schenectady eventually expanded into the Submarine Intermediate Reactor project." Reprinted from Chemical and Engineering News, "The Government Reactor Program," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol 8, No. 8, Nov 1952, pp. 283-286, 292
The ANL website confirms that the transfer of technology from Oak Ridge to Argonne in 1948 where Westinghouse staff worked with Argonne staff. The work began after the Manhattan project and was originally at Oak Ridge.
http://www.ne.anl.gov/About/reactors/lwr3.shtmlThe focus of the Manhattan Project (which concluded December 31, 1946) was the production of Pu-239 in the production reactors at Hanford. They were large graphite moderated reactors, not suitable for propulsion, and they did not produce electricity. B reactor was first in 1944, followed by D reactor in 1944, then F reactor in 1945, and H reactor in 1949. Others followed in the 1950s. B, D, and F reactors were designed by DuPont, while H reactor was designed by GE.
Ref:
http://ecology.pnnl.gov/library/History/Hanford-History-All.pdf
Ref: See AEC, 1970 (osti) reference below
The US Government's Metallurgical Laboratory, the precursor to Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), did design reactors. There were a number of test reactors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallurgical_Laboratory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Atomic_Energy_Commission
http://www.ne.anl.gov/About/early-history-of-argonne/
On July 1, 1946, the laboratory was formally chartered as Argonne National Laboratory to conduct "cooperative research in nucleonics." At the request of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, it began developing nuclear reactors for the nation's peaceful nuclear energy program. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the laboratory moved to a larger location in Lemont, Illinois, and established a remote location in Idaho, called "Argonne-West," to conduct further nuclear research.
http://www.ne.anl.gov/About/ANL-Reactors.shtml
http://www.ne.anl.gov/About/reactors/History-of-Argonne-Reactor-Operations.pdf
https://www.osti.gov/scitech/servlets/purl/4115425 (See page 21 for the list of Production reactors.)
AEC, NUCLEAR REACTORS BUILT, BEING BUILT, OR PLANNED IN THE UNITED STATES AS OF JUNE 30, 1970.
See page 22-23 for submarines and ships with naval reactors. Various other tables have different types of nuclear experiments, experimental and research reactors, and commercial power reactors. Startup dates (years) and in some cases shutdown dates are provided.
From the PNNL reference:
"The Manhattan Project had its inception in the Advisory Committee on Uranium that was established by President Franklin Roosevelt in October 1939 to pursue scientific uranium research. Roosevelt’s approval of the committee was based on his belief that the United States could not take the risk of allowing Hitler and Nazi Germany to unilaterally gain possession of atomic bombs. While over the next couple of years considerable research on the feasibility of the production of a uranium or plutonium bomb took place, experiments were restricted to laboratory studies until the United States entered the Second World War. Soon after Pearl Harbor, the Advisory Committee on Uranium decided to sponsor an intensiveresearch program on plutonium. The research contract was placed with the Metallurgical Laboratory (Met Lab) of the University of Chicago . . . the purpose of this research project was to develop the knowledge to design, build, and operate a plant for the conversion of uranium into plutonium . . . [and] recommended that the Army Corps of Engineers carry out the construction work for such a plant (DOE 1997b, p. 5.5)."
The MetLab became the Argonne National Laboratory.
And from http://web.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev25-34/foreword.shtml
In 1947, the Atomic Energy Commission, following the advice of the General Advisory Committee (GAC), decided that a laboratory in the hills of Tennessee could never achieve scientific distinction. It, therefore, designated Argonne as the country's only center for reactor development. The outlook for ORNL's survival was bleak. Robert Oppenheimer and James Conant were doubtful that the laboratory could survive; and I. I. Rabi, another prominent member of the GAC, tried to persuade the scientists of ORNL to move, en masse, to the newly formed Brookhaven National Laboratory. So, ever since it was founded, ORNL's survival has been an overriding concern.
ONRL history - http://web.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev25-34/features.shtml
In Nuclear Power, U.S.A., there is reference to the Experimental Gas-Cooled Reactor (EGCR), which was designed by Kaiser Engineers and Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company. The fuel elements and certain other components were developed by ORNL. It was under construction as of 1964, but a footnote in the AEC (1970) reference indicates "The EGCR project was terminated in January 1966 prior to the completion of construction." Another project mentioned in the 1964 reference is the HTGR designed by the General Atomic Division of General Dynamics Corporation and constructed as Unit 1 at Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station.
The UK Magnox and AGR reactors were certainly not conceived during the Manhattan Project, nor were they conceived in the US.Another major technology, Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) technology, was first demonstrated by Argonne West at the NTRS in 1953-1954. Seth Untermyer
http://www.ne.anl.gov/About/reactors/lwr3.shtml#fragment-3
"In 1952, Samuel Untermyer suggested that direct boiling reactors might be practical. Previous to this time it had been thought that any bubble formation in the core would result in nuclear instabilities. Untermyer suggested that steam formation would actually help stabilize the reaction. Accordingly, Argonne National Laboratory designed, built, and operated a series of experimental boiling water reactors on the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho. These reactors were known as the BORAX (Boiling Reactor Experiment) series."The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (McMahon Act) was signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on August 1, 1946, it went into effect on January 1, 1947. The Act established the Atomic Energy Commission, which assumed responsibility for nuclear energy from the wartime Manhattan Project.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_Energy_Act_of_1946