END OF AN ERA AS BROOKHAVEN LAB CLOSES NUCLEAR REACTOR

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

END OF AN ERA AS BROOKHAVEN LAB CLOSES NUCLEAR REACTOR
Source: Newsday

Closing out an era of nuclear research on Long Island that had generated
some of the region's most volatile political battles, Brookhaven
National Laboratory announced yesterday it was shutting down the last of
its three nuclear research reactors.

Built in 1959, the Brookhaven Medical Research Reactor, the only active
nuclear reactor left on the Island, has been intermittently used for
experiments to treat brain cancer. But the lab's director, John
Marburger, said the "discouraging results" of recent clinical trials,
along with a dwindling enthusiasm for this research among government
agencies, convinced the lab that the reactor should be closed.

"This decision brings that history of reactor-based studies to the end,"
Marburger said. "It's always sad when an experiment ends, especially one
that doesn't work out the way you hope."

Scientists said advanced research formerly performed with reactors is
increasingly being done on more versatile devices called particle
accelerators. Brookhaven has built several, including the $600-million
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, which is designed to explore subatomic
physics and began operation last month. With only 10 employees, the
medical reactor was not a critical part of the lab's operations, and
Marburger said its workers will be reassigned. While Marburger said the
decision to close the medical reactor was made only on scientific
grounds, anti-nuclear activists said they had been planning to launch a
campaign to close it down.
<http://www.newsday.com/news/daily/bnl14.htm>
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Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director
Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, Inc.
136 S Illinois Ave, Ste 208, Oak Ridge, TN 37830
Phone (865) 483-1333; Fax (865) 482-6572; E-mail loc@icx.net 
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