A Word ABOUT US From Webmaster Teegan Duckworth
Welcome to the HiFARClockCo website.
Firstly, the site is in the early stages of development and testing, so currently there is not a lot of content.
This site is split into two sections. The first, (html pages) furnishes (or will furnish) what is now 'historical information' on Australia's nuclear reactor HiFAR, from the perspectives of one who devoted some eleven years of her life to its operation in roles ranging from Reactor Operator, Reactor Chemist, Operations Engineer and Duty Officer, to A/Head HiFAR Operations Section and Manager HiFAR. The content includes .gif animations and may contain an experimental page built on frames. (That page is not yet on the site and will include a warning for those who don't wish to view frame content.)
Flash Content: IF YOU HAVE BEEN REDIRECTED TO THIS PAGE READ THE FOLLOWING:
The second part of the site (accessible via the HOME PAGE button on the nav-bar at the top of the page) charts my experiments in learning Flash Action Script 2.0, Fireworks 8, Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator CS2 and provided a useful laboratory in which to view the results. It is dedicated to gratuitous animation for which I make no apologies!!! You may wish to read about the embedded Action Script in the Home Page by viewing the ABOUT FLASH html page first.
Needless to say, viewing this part of the site requires your browser to have the Flash Player add-on. If you can see a ticking clock (which should be indicating your computer's time) in the left margin, then you have Flash Player installed already. If you can't see the clock, then you need to download and install the add-on, available from Adobe's website via this link:
Flash Player From Macromedia Needs Administrator Privileges to Install
The site has a high graphical content with some of the image file sizes ranging up to 5MB, so if you have a slow connection, some images will take a while to download.
Similarly, the Flash pages have file sizes ranging up to 1.5 MB so some content may be slow to load depending on your connection speed.
Finally, HiFARClockCo has no links with ANSTO, apart from the link on this page to their website which provides much interesting information on the new reactor OPAL and the uses of nuclear technology in general, and is well worth taking the time to explore.
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Why HiFARClockCo? 
The HiFARClockCo was born when I first created a clock based on one of the Reactor Control Room analogue gauges. The gauges were replaced during the 2000 Major Shut-Down with more up-to-date digital instruments. The clock was made by photographing the gauge faceplate and incorporating the image into a conventional analogue wall clock. The clock was presented to a retiring Reactor Shift Superintendent as a memento of his extensive career.
Since that time a number of other clocks have been fabricated and gifted to former colleagues, as well as the virtual clocks featured in this site.
The name also signifies my attachment to HiFAR and to the many exceptional people with whom I had the very great pleasure of working alongside over eleven years.
In many respects the site is a tribute to the achievement that was HiFAR's longevity of over 49 years of safe operation, due in the main to the dedicated technical and support staff who operated, maintained and supplied her.
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The Clocks
The clocks currently featured in the site are:.
- The RAT Heavy Water Level clock
- The Storage Heavy Water Level clock
- The Helium Pressure clock
- The Heavy Water Flow Rate clock
The virtual clocks were created from images produced by scanning the gauge faceplate and touching up in Photoshop. They are a faithful reproduction of the faceplates except for the location of the serial numbers, which have been lifted to make them visible in the finished image.
The clock surrounds were fabricated in Fireworks 8, and the hands animated with Flash Action script 2.0.
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