The Bevatron. Image courtesy of LBNL.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory plans to tear down its historic Bevatron particle accelerator, which was instrumental in discoveries that led to four Nobel Prizes. Built under the direction of E.O. Lawrence, it opened in 1954 and closed in 1993 after research moved to newer facilities.
But as reported in today's Oakland Tribune, the demolition has run into opposition from people worried that busting up the machine, which contains low levels of radiation, might harm the health of people living nearby and along the routes where the debris will be trucked out.
The Berkeley City Council will consider a resolution tonight asking the Department of Energy to prepare a more detailed environmental report, answer a list of questions about the demolition plan and tear down the machine itself before the surrounding building is demolished, the newspaper reports:
The demolition project could start as early as August and is expected to be completed in 2011 at an estimated $72 million cost. Though the lab doesn't have plans for the land that will be cleared, space for new research facilities is at a premium on the crowded, hilly campus.
The council does not have authority over what ultimately will happen to the Bevatron. But town-gown relations are always important and the lab has maintained that the demolition can be done without any danger to the public.
"Under the current plan, Berkeley Lab will dismantle and remove the Bevatron and surrounding blocks prior to the demolition of the building that contains them. The lab will inform the city of significant milestones throughout the project's lifespan," read a letter from lab spokesman Don Medley.
It's been a sad year for old atom-smashers; Columbia University recently dismantled what was left of its 72-year-old cyclotron, which had been closed down for years. The August issue of symmetry will feature an essay by one of the many students who used to spelunk, through a network of underground tunnels, into the basement room where the machine once hummed.
The Bevatron
... played the leading role in three of the most important discoveries of particle physics: experimental studies of "strange" particles leading to the discovery of parity nonconservation (the first known example of a lack of symmetry in nature); the discovery of nuclear antimatter (the antiprotons and the antineutron); and the discovery of the "resonances" -- the particle explosion of the 1960's that led to the development of the quark model and the current understanding of the basic nature of matter.
That's from an article written by LBNL's Judy Goldhaber in 1992.
