User:Brian the Editor/sandbox/Ward Laboratory of Nuclear Engineering

http://www.research.cornell.edu/VPR/Ward/WCNS.html

Decision to close: http://theuniversityfaculty.cornell.edu/forums/pdfs/Wardrelease.pdf

Change from Coll of Engr to interdisciplinary: http://chronicle.cornell.edu/stories/1997/04/ward-laboratory-cornell-now-universitywide-center

Decomissioning details: http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/research-test/cornell-university-triga.html

• "Studies" name
• TRIGA routine operations stopped June 30, 2002
• Zero Power Reactor stopped September 6, 1996
• operating license terminated June 5, 2007

Obituary of first director: http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/12/nyregion/david-clark-73-furthered-nuclear-research.html

• 1961, "one of the first university reactors in its class", 100 kW

David Delano Clark

http://www.trtr.org/Links/TRTR_February.html#Cornell

• 500 kW TRIGA Mark II Pulsing Nuclear Research Reactor
  • first criticality January 1962, license for 100 kW steady state
  • Nov 1983: increased power to 500 kW + $3 in pulse operation
  • univ, gov, industry
• 10,000-Curie Cobalt-60 Gamma Cell
• renamed Jan 1997, university-wide
• about 8 grad students per year use for design or rsrch

"News in Brief", Nature 411, 626 (7 June 2001) doi:10.1038/35079760

• 500 kW reactor scheduled to be decomissioned
• not feasible academically and economically
• "only such facility in the state"
• nuke sci & eng ended in 1995
• rsrch & training
• gamma-ray facility continued

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/28/us/nuclear-programs-are-losing-ground-on-campus.html

• May 2001 vote to close reactor
• only reactor in NYS, last in Ivy League
• considered uses in archaeology, geology, art history

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=20010527&id=df8gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=inQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3864,5442372

• vote on May 26, 2001
• Energy Dept offered $250K to keep it running
  • half of annual operating budget
• opened 1962
• 1/1000th pwr of usual power plant
• study wood to determine age of artwork
• reasons: little use, liability of keeping nuclear fuel, valuable space on campus

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1957&dat=20010527&id=VXsuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bogFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1312,6183409

• 500 kW, started Jan 1962

search "cornell" at http://nucleus.iaea.org/RRDB/RR/ReactorSearch.aspx for both triga and zpr reactors

http://www.webofstories.com/play/hans.bethe/112;jsessionid=EFB00CAAEF24430D5C0D40E24EFE236E

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/27/nyregion/cornell-trustees-vote-to-close-reactor.html

search author:clark title:cornell at osti.gov/scitech

https://brancra.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/buildings-no-one-really-cares-about/

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/1996-05/CUNS-FCRT-240596.php

• neutron imaging of corn rootworms, layers of pigment on a painting, root growth
• neutron radiography facility used TRIGA reactor since mid-1980s

Ward Center for Nuclear Sciences Report, September 2000

Carlton Ward and NEPA "Who's News: J. C. Ward, Jr., Elected President of Vitro Mfg., CS. Payson, Chairman". July 2, 1953. Wall Street Journal. pg. 4. "Atomic Plane U.S. Goal in New Project". February 23, 1947. Los Angeles Times. pg. 1.

ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/27521/1/050_14.pdf

• possibly public domain photo of carlton

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Brian the Editor/sandbox/Ward Laboratory of Nuclear Engineering

The J. Carlton Ward, Jr. Laboratory of Nuclear Engineering was a research and teaching facility at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its main features were a 500-kilowatt TRIGA-type reactor, a Zero-Power Reactor, and a Cobalt-60 Gamma Cell.

History

David Delano Clark was appointed as the laboratory's first director in 1961, and its TRIGA reactor first achieved criticality in January of the following year. The laboratory was named for J. Carlton Ward, Jr., a Cornell alumnus. As president of Fairchild Aircraft in the 1940s, Carlton Ward helped to found and lead the government's Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft project.

After Cornell ended its undergraduate major in nuclear engineering in 1995, many administrators saw little reason for continuing to maintain the Ward Lab. Operation of the Zero-Power Reactor stopped on September 6, 1996. In 1997 the lab that had previously been part of the College of Engineering was reorganized as a university-wide interdisciplinary Ward Center for Nuclear Sciences. On May 26, 2001, Cornell's trustees voted to close the TRIGA reactor but to continue the use of the gamma ray. Operation of the TRIGA reactor ended about a year later. The decommissioning and cleaning process continued until June 5, 2007, when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the request to terminate the operating licenses for the TRIGA and ZPR facilities.

External links

• Home Page of The Ward Center for Nuclear Sciences @ Cornell Univ., from February 2002

Category:Cornell University Category:Nuclear research centers Category:Nuclear research reactors