Nuclear lab, reactor to be dismantled

By Jen Fish

Daily Staff Reporter

The University announced yesterday it has begun the planning process to decommission the Ford Nuclear Reactor and the facilities of the Phoenix Memorial Laboratory on North Campus.

Vice President for Research Fawwaz Ulaby said evaluations of the facility showed the primary users of the reactor were from outside institutions rather than the University.

"There was a decline in the fraction of the services it provides to the University community in comparison to outside users such as industry and the federal government," Ulaby said.

Ulaby estimated that 75 percent of the reactor's users were from outside the University.

Because much of this use is by the federal government, Ulaby said the University is trying to persuade the government to provide funds to keep the reactor in operation.

"If the federal government comes forward with funds to cover the operational costs of the reactor, we will reconsider this decision," Ulaby said.

The decommissioning of reactors is not unusual, Ulaby said. In the past 20 years, he said, the number of university-owned nuclear reactors nationwide has declined from about 65 to 28.

Although the license for the facilities is valid for another five years, the decommission process will cut into that time. If the decommission proceeds, the lab will continue to operate for another 12 to 18 months.

Jan Strasma, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the process of decommissioning a reactor "involves dismantling the facility, cleaning contamination and disposing of any nuclear waste." Once the process is complete, the NRC will do another survey of the area to ensure that all radioactive materials are properly disposed.

Built in 1955 through a grant from the Ford Motor Co., the reactor's operational costs are about $1 million to $1.5 million annually.

The Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project was established in 1948 with the goal of exploring peaceful applications of nuclear energy in remembrance of University faculty, students and alumni who died in World War II.

According to the Phoenix Project's annual report, the project employs 24 full time personnel. In addition to the Ford Nuclear Reactor, the facility also houses the Gamma Irradiation Facility, which is used to sterilize human tissue and study the effects of radiation on various materials.

The reactor is used by a variety of academic departments, from anthropology to zoology. One of the major applications of the reactor is neutron activation, which helps archaeologists identify the source of certain materials like in ceramics.

Ulaby said the University will work to help researchers utilize other facilities to compensate for the loss of the reactor.

"What will be lost mostly will be the convenience" of having the reactor on campus, he said.

But some professors are not too sure.

One archaeologist, anthropology Prof. John O'Shea said the University's lab is one of "only about two other labs in the country" that can perform neutron activation analysis. Having the lab here, he said, "was a unique benefit."

"I think it's a tremendous loss," he said.

NORMAN NG/Daily

Assistant Manager Bernard Ducamp works in the control room at the Ford Nuclear Reactor yesterday. In the background is the actual reactor, which can generate 2 megawatts of electricity.