March 27, 2011

At Campus Nuclear Reactors, Heads Are Cool

News from Japan prompts reassurances from campus operators

At Campus Nuclear Reactors, Heads Are Cool 1

Benjamin Brink, The Oregonian

Reed College's research reactor sits in a pool of water 25 feet deep. Even if the water leaked away, the fuel wouldn't get hot enough to melt.

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close At Campus Nuclear Reactors, Heads Are Cool 1

Benjamin Brink, The Oregonian

Reed College's research reactor sits in a pool of water 25 feet deep. Even if the water leaked away, the fuel wouldn't get hot enough to melt.

By Lawrence Biemiller

Portland, Ore.

The week before spring break would have been a busy one for the undergraduates who run Reed College's nuclear reactor in any case. Almost everyone had midterms, and a team of inspectors from the U.S. Energy Department was visiting to check the reactor's old fuel rods with a high-tech camera and watch as reactor operators—all of them students—transferred the rods to lead-lined caskets so they can be shipped away later this year.

But with a crisis of unprecedented