UCI may close reactor

Deirdre Newman

A nuclear reactor at UC Irvine that has been used in a wide variety of

research efforts may be shut down within the next five years because of

lack of use.

The 250-kilowatt fission reactor has seen a steady decline in its

allure over the past decade by both faculty members and students,

chemistry professor F. Sherwood Rowland said.

“There are other techniques that don’t involve radioactivity which for

some purposes turned out to be either easier to apply or more sensitive,

so people would go in that direction,” Rowland said.

University officials will make a decision on the reactor’s future by

the end of the school year, said Ronald Stern, dean of physical sciences.

The reactor, which began operating in 1969, has been used on

background research that led to a Nobel Prize, on analysis of the bullets

from both Kennedy assassinations and to examine mercury pollution in

swordfish and tuna.

Rowland used the reactor on basic research with chlorofluorocarbons --

which he found to be responsible for causing the hole in the ozone layer

-- before he began studying them in the environment. His research

garnered a Nobel Prize in 1995.

While at one time there were three faculty members who made major use

of the reactor, Rowland said he is the last one. And the scarcity of

young professors studying radiochemistry is worrisome, he said.

“There has been a constant concern for the past 10 to 15 years that,

nationally we’re losing a capability that we formerly had,” Rowland said.

If the administration does decide to close the reactor, it would

probably continue to operate for another two to three years, reactor

supervisor George Miller said.

-- Deirdre Newman covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at o7 deirdre.newman@latimes.comf7 .