December 8, 2006

Campus Nuclear Reactors Draw Scrutiny

The facilities attract the attention of the news media and federal regulators, as a plan to end the use of weapons-grade fuel moves slowly

By KELLY FIELD

The nuclear reactor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is small and not particularly powerful, with a core no bigger than a dormitory refrigerator and operating power one six-hundredth that of an average power reactor. Compared with its commercial counterparts, it is so unimposing that some nuclear scientists call it a "Micky Mouse reactor."

But its fuel is weapons-grade uranium, a crucial ingredient in the making of nuclear bombs. If the fuel were ever stolen, it could be