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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.'"
"Cue the irrational fears and misunderstanding of these materials and processes while the coal fired power plant burns down the street" music
This way they were actually able to get it done.
"Moving nuclear materials. The usual."
Nobodies Prefect
Tidbits for Techs Technology Blog
Los Angeles used to have a little experimental reactor in UCLA. It was quite controversial once residents found out about it. http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/04/ucla-history-nuclear-reactor.html
Looking at the picture of the device in TFA, doesn't it look like there are shadows of people on the wall around it?
Now, if I was a conspiracy theorist....
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
I'm not so surprised that some rather alarmingly powerful beam sources would be operated quietly by people with atypical sensor needs. I am a bit surprised that 3.5 lbs of highly enriched Uranium would be available to serve as a beam source.
Not telling the neighbors about a scary-sounding piece of industrial/scientific apparatus is one thing, having enough nuclear material to interest a proliferation wonk in your basement, on the other hand, seems like it would raise eyebrows...
The department of physics at our university (Aalto university, Finland) has their own nuclear reactor. This brings the total number of nuclear reactors in Finland to five.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
I was in Rochester as a small boy in the 1950's, and knew about the reactor from about the age of 4 or so. As I recall, some of the cooling water drained into a small duck pond (surrounded about the fence). I was told that there was some small amount of radioactivity, although no one much was concerned at the time. At any rate, the main thing that got through my 4 year old mind was that for some reason it was not a good idea to try to climb the fence or get near the ducks. At any rate, it was generally known, and not a secret.
I was wondering if anyone selling reactors on ebay (not legal but so is selling human kidneys, which someone always post), I did find a Lionel at only $269.95 (C-9 Factory New - Brand New), http://www.ebay.com/itm/LIONEL-24294-NUCLEAR-REACTOR-/160558274893
But if you can't buy it, then gotta make it as this "fusioneer" as described in "Extreme DIY: Building a homemade nuclear reactor in NYC" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10385853 (though I have doubts as the experts at Lawrence Livermore been talking for 50 years they should have in 10 years able to demonstrate electric power production from a fusion reactor.) But I guess having a fusion reactor working or not in the basement would be pretty cool.
mfwright@batnet.com
I just found out, after making a wrong turn and then doing a little research, that General Atomics plays with experimental nuclear and fusion reactor prototypes just a few miles down the road from our office building. I think it's really freakin' cool but I sure there would be a big hubballoo if more San Diegans knew about it.
Wikipedia lists 29 active and licensed civilian reactors; the majority of them belong to universities. Most were built in the 60's, most are General Atomics TRIGA reactors, and the power outputs range from 1 W to 10 MW. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_reactors
A few other civilian groups are licensed to have nuclear material, and of course other sectors and nations have lots of the stuff. It's really pretty common.
How many as-yet undetected meth labs pose more danger?
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.
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
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.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
So far as I know, nobody cares about the electric plant. It's the *enrichment* plant that everyone is concerned about. With their own centrifuge, there's nothing to stop them from enriching uranium to weapons-grade (80%+) material.
If you go back and read the news more carefully, I think you'll find all the sanctions discussion revolves around the centrifuge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_State_University_Radiation_Science_%26_Engineering_Center
They used to give tours to science undergraduates. It was a big swimming pool and you could see the Cherenkov radiation as you watched from the top of the pool.
Very interesting!
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
It's a neutron source, not a power-generating reactor. It used a smidgeon (tenth of a gram or so) of Cf-252 to spit out some initial neutrons, said neutrons being used to kick off a small (non-self-sustaining) chain reaction in the U-235. The U-235 reaction multiplies the Cf-252 flux by a few orders of magnitude and is the source of the overwhelming majority of the neutron flux. In order to keep such a source compact (and in order to not have to deal with the complications afforded by exposing tons of U-238 to a neutron flux), you probably need to use HEU for such a device.
Once you've got it up and running, you can then use the neutrons to activate other materials and observe the spectra of whatever your neutron-activated target material emits, which probably enables you to know with a very high degree of accuracy, what your target material was made of. Once you're done with it, pull out the Californium and the whole thing shuts itself down.
Kodak didn't make the HEU, the DoE made the HEU. Kodak was licensed to use it, under very strict controls. It wasn't "hidden in a basement lab", it was buried in a basement for both radiological and security reasons, and it wasn't "forgotten about", its existence just wasn't widely publicized. The DoE knew where it was all the time. It just didn't want to publicize it, for obvious reasons.
Back in its heyday you could smell Rochester on the approach by car from all the caustic chemicals Kodak used in the mass production process. If they're worried about a neutron generator used for metallurgical testing then they should be wearing a gasmask from simply living IN Rochester.
I suspect if the Fearless Leader of Kodak went on international TV and made a speech about how they were going to wipe "Fuji off the map" to eliminate their problems, someone might have wondered if they really needed that nuclear device. As it is, Iran is likely to get a lot closer to being able to eliminate their Israeli problem once and for all and settle the Palestinian issue - unless of course Israel decides that the survival of their population trumps getting brownie points in the international debating society.
My guess is Iran will get closer and then take a major hit from Israel. The US will do nothing except claim (still) that the sanctions are working.
And yes, well after, my reproductive organs functioned just fine, thank you. ;)
-jim