49 1975 Hot Fuel Examination Facility Argonne-West’s flagship facility for conducting post-irradiation examination of fuels and materials began operations in 1975. HFEF is a large, heavily shielded, alpha-gamma hot cell facility designed for remote examination of highly irradiated fuel and structural materials. A critical component of the research needed to develop new nuclear technologies, HFEF is a national research asset with the nation’s largest inert atmosphere hot cell dedicated to radioactive materials research.The main hot cell is 70 feet by 30 feet with 15 workstations, each at a 4-foot-thick window. It can accept full-size light water reactor fuel assemblies, and its capabilities include nondestructive and destructive examination.