Is Anyone Watching Primetime Live on ABC??

They have 10 students going across the country to 25 different nuclear reactors on College Campuses.

OK, my first question is - Why are there Nuclear Reactors on College Campuses?? One in partcular is in Gainesville, FL.

2nd question - Why aren't there any security officers on duty at the College?? Never mind at the Nuclear Reactor, but on campus itself. My High School had security guards - and that was 15 years ago.

If you do a DU search, there's another thread on this topic, with posts by a scientist at one such facility.

They have just walked into every reactor building on 4 different college campuses.

u of f has a nuclear reactor? yikes! glad they didn't have one when i was there. i wonder what happened to the campus police?

ellen fl

My response to this is.... So what!? No big deal.

Nuclear reactors on campus are research tools. They are the same class of device as a particle accelerator. They are small, research-based devices and typically have small yields and little military value.

As a physics graduate I recongnize the need to have such facilities. In spite of prospective dangers you can trust me that they are operated safely and are completely necessary for any graduate physics curriculum.

Any nuclear facility has safety and security which is well beyond what is required. In the 1970's I worked at Argonne National Laboratory. Behind the pleasant smiles of the polite guys at the gate there was a significant security infrastructure. The security was quiet, even subdued. If one didn't know what was going on within the borders of the lab, you would never know that it was so well secured. I wouldn't want to be the one to test that security.

Security at nuclear facilities on campus would have the same character. Subdued and more potent than is visible.

Just my interpretation.

on edit: the amount of fissionable products and byproducts at such a research facility as described would be strictly limited and monitored.

There are radiation monitors all over the halls of these facilities. If somebody tried to take out any dangerous stuff all hell would break loose. I don't recommend that anybody try it.

University of Chicago - Chicago Pile 1, or CP-1 as it might be called. Just a hand laid pile of blocks and rods. Often refered to as having been in the basement under the University's basketball court, in fact it was in a different building. It was the grandfather of the first National Labratory - Argone.

CP-1 built in a squash court!!

What is all the fuss about building nuclear capabilities
when one can walk into any colleges and just pick up the uranium.

Man if these uranium are weapon grade you guys better becareful of whacko getting their hand on it.

Homeland Security need their butt kick real hard on this one.

That kind of research is done at national laboratories, not on campus.

This whole deal is typical overreaction by people who don't know all the facts.

But then, again, it's the media's little way of feeding the terror addiction we seem to have developed.