Kodak Basement Lab Housed Small Nuclear Reactor

McGruber writes "The Rochester (NY) Democrat-Chronicle has the interesting story of the Eastman Kodak Co.'s Californium Neutron Flux Multiplier, which was housed in Building 82 of Kodak Park in Rochester, NY. The multiplier contained 3½ pounds of highly enriched (weapons-grade) uranium. Kodak used it to check chemicals and other materials for impurities, as well as for tests related to neutron radiography, an imaging technique. From the article: 'When Kodak decided six years ago to close down the device, still more scrutiny followed. Federal regulators made them submit detailed plans for removing the substance. When the highly enriched uranium was packaged into protective containers and spirited away in November 2007, armed guards were surely on hand. All of this — construction of a bunker with two-foot-thick concrete walls, decades of research and esoteric quality control work with a neutron beam, the safeguarding and ultimate removal of one of the more feared substances on earth — was done pretty much without anyone in the Rochester community having a clue.'"

Comments

sigh...

[Bugler412]

"Cue the irrational fears and misunderstanding of these materials and processes while the coal fired power plant burns down the street" music

Re:sigh...

[PPH]

They also took away the right for the emergency services workers to be trained and know what they were dealing with in the event of a fire or other situation potentially involving weapons grade radioisotopes.

Think so?

It's possible that emergency services knew what was on site and may even have procedures in place to deal with it. Its also possible that they didn't feel the need to involve every Joe Sixpack in the neighborhood in the details of where a couple of pounds of weapons grade fissile material was located.

Good.

[Cold hard reality]

This way they were actually able to get it done.

Reporting Error

[Anonymous Coward]

armed guards were surely on hand

This is how you discern a conservative:they speculate about things they have no knowledge of, forming conclusions based only on what they believe "ought to be" and then use that speculation as the basis for their beliefs. There's nothing in the article to suggest that armed guards were present for the removal of the enriched uranium, only the reporter's speculation.

Re:Reporting Error

[CanHasDIY]

armed guards were surely on hand

This is how you discern a conservative: they speculate about things they have no knowledge of, forming conclusions based only on what they believe "ought to be" and then use that speculation as the basis for their beliefs.

This is how you discern a hypocritical asshole: someone who does exactly the thing they're bitching about someone else doing, but without noticing it.

Re:Big picture

[mpoulton]

So, Iran with its 70+ million population, is sanctioned for building reactor, while in USA individual private companies. Makes sense in global media idiocracy we live in!

Right. Because a tiny research reactor in a federally licensed facility in the US with tight control over its small load of enriched uranium, and which does not breed more weapons-grade material, is EXACTLY THE SAME as a program of large reactors in an unstable nation that's actively trying to develop nuclear weapons. Yeah, that sounds like a problem with the media to me.