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University of Washington Department of Nuclear Engineering records, 1954-1994

Overview of the Collection

Creator
University of Washington. Department of Nuclear Engineering
Title
University of Washington Department of Nuclear Engineering records
Dates
1954-1994 (inclusive)
Quantity
47.02 cubic feet (52 boxes, one tube, four oversized folders and one oversized item)
Collection Number
UW Resource No. 00336 (Accession No. 06-013)
Summary
Records of the University of Washington Department of Nuclear Engineering
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Open to all users, but access to portions of the papers restricted. Contact repository for full details.

Several records relating to security measures enforced by the department to safeguard nuclear materials on campus were once restricted from public access under CFR 10 2.790. However, as the facility no longer houses nuclear materials and was demolished, these records are now open.

Some records are stored off site; advance notice required for use.

Request at UW

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was partially provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Historical Note

Nuclear engineering classes were taught at the University of Washington before the establishment of a department of nuclear engineering. The first nuclear engineering course was offered at the University of Washington in 1953 and a subcommittee on nuclear engineering education was named to plan courses and facilities in the spring of 1956. During the following academic year, subcommittee members offered elective courses in nuclear engineering and the Graduate School approved the creation of the M.S.E degree in nuclear engineering. The first class of seven students was admitted to work towards a M.S.E. degree during the 1957-1958 academic year and the first M.S.E. degree was awarded in June 1958. The Nuclear Engineering Group in the Graduate School authorized the creation of a Ph.D. degree in Nuclear Engineering in November 1962 and the first Ph.D. degree was awarded in June 1964. The Joint Center for Graduate Study in Richland, Washington, was formed in the Autumn quarter of 1964 and offered courses in nuclear engineering.

On January 1, 1965 the Department of Nuclear Engineering was organized in response to a need within the state of Washington and the region for graduate level teaching and research programs in nuclear energy. The department continued to offer M.S.N.E. and Ph.D. degrees and broadened its curriculum in the 1970's to include plasma physics and nuclear fusion. In later years, the department began to offer undergraduate courses that would allow students to receive a B.S.E. degree with a nuclear option through the College of Engineering's Interdepartmental Curricular Program. The Department of Nuclear Engineering was officially disbanded in October of 1993 after awarding more than 300 graduate degrees. The department cited low enrollment and diverging faculty research interests as the primary reasons for disbanding. Departmental chairs were Dr. Albert "Les" Babb: 1965-1981, 1984-1986, Dr. Gene L. Woodruff 1981-1984, and Dr. Kermit L. Garlid 1986-1993.

In 1961, the Nuclear Reactor Building was completed on campus. The department's 100 kilowatt, water-graphite moderated nuclear reactor was housed in the building. Its approximate dimensions were 5 feet by 5 feet by 9 feet for its graphite core, which was then encapsulated with another 7 feet of concrete shielding. The reactor was manufactured by the nuclear division of the American Machine and Foundry Company, AMF Atomics. It was assembled during the construction period of the Nuclear Reactor Building, and first brought to criticality in 1961. The reactor was used exclusively for the purposes of research and education. In 1986 the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued 10 CFR 50.64, a regulation stating that all domestic, non-power reactors must start using Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) as opposed to High Enriched Uranium (HEU). Instead of investing in a costly retrofit to accommodate LEU, in addition to other reactor modifications and updates, the department opted to shut down the reactor, and to ship the reactor fuel back to the US Department of Energy. Critical operations for the reactor ceased on June 30th, 1988.

The only significant accident to occur in the Nuclear Reactor facilities was a minor case of plutonium exposure. Known as the "Plutonium Contamination Incident," this event was the result of leak in a small plutonium target being used by a graduate student in an experiment. The problems with the plutonium target were attributed to a double failure of both the inner and outer cladding of the foils. The leak was detected on June 13th, 1972. Proper procedure was followed to make sure that the contamination was not spread and there was no detectable contamination in the environment outside the building. No person received a dose of radiation in excess of the recommended federal limits. The majority of the decontamination of the building was completed by August 11th, 1972.

During the 1960s and 1970s, a team led by Professor Albert L. (Les) Babb and Dr. Belding Scribner, a faculty member in the School of Medicine, engineered several advances in the field of hemodialysis. Prior to the first dialysis project, treatment for renal failure was very limited and costly. Early dialysis machines were cumbersome and inefficient as they could only treat one patient at a time. During the summer of 1963, Dr. Babb and Lars Girmsud, a graduate student, designed a multi-patient dialysite mixing system which they nicknamed the "monster." The goal of this machine was to reduce the overall cost of dialysis treatment and to increase acess to dialysis, but the number of patients needing dialysis treatment still exceeded the capacity of hospitals to care for them. To cope with this scarcity of resources in Seattle, an anonymous committee of citizens was appointed to select patients to receive dialysis treatment. When 16 year old Caroline Helm, the daughter of a friend of Dr. Babb's, was denied urgent treatment by the committee, Dr. Babb assembled a volunteer team of physicians and engineers from the Nuclear Engineering Department who were willing to work on evenings and weekends. Together, they created a small dialysis machine, simple and safe enough to be used at home without the supervision of a medical professional. The "mini-monster" was delivered to the University of Washington Hospital on June 1st, 1964. It was a trim two feet by three feet, weighed 150 pounds, and allowed patients a more affordable option for treatment. Caroline Helm and her mother received training for home usage of the "mini-monster" and her treatment began the following month.

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Content Description

The records of the University of Washington Department of Nuclear Engineering document the administrative, operatonal activities of the department and its faculty, covering the entire time period it remained in operation. The collection includes grant proposals and reports describing research conducted by the department, course files describing materials from various courses taught by Nuclear Engineering faculty, curriculum records detailing requirements of and changes to degrees offered through the department, minutes from faculty meetings, files related to the "artifical kidney" dialysis research project, and files pertaining to the construction and maintenance of the nuclear reactor and its facility. Records in the nuclear reactor series include a large number of drawings of the reactor.

Also included are records relating to the Joint Center for Graduate Studies (JCGS), committee files including the University of Washington Radiation Safety Committee, and records of local chapters of the American Nuclear Society. Dr. Albert L. Babb created or collected the bulk of the records. Other major correspondants include: Dean of Engineering Harold Wessman of the College of Engineering, University of Washington College of Engineering, the United States Atomic Energy Commission, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the United States Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) and AMF Atomics, Inc.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Public Records (use unrestricted when access is granted).

Preferred Citation

University of Washington Department of Nuclear Engineering records, Accession No. 06-013. University of Washington Libraries.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged into four series:

  • Department records, 1954-1994
  • University of Washington Nuclear Reactor, 1957-1994
  • University committees, 1964-1986
  • Other organizations, 1965-1993

Preservation Note

Some records are stored off site; advance notice required for use.

Acquisition Information

This accession is a merger of records received from the Department of Nuclear Engineering in 1976, and Chemical Engineering in 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2004. Nuclear Reactor records were received from the Nuclear Reactor Laboratories in 1976, and Pat Miller in 1995. Also includes accession 24-049 donated by Jeffrey L. Schwartz, Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology, 2012.

Processing Note

Processed by A. Sinclaire Lindsey; processing completed in 2007.

Records of the Nuclear Reactor Laboratories had been accessioned separately from records of the Department of Nuclear Engineering, but were combined during processing.

Separated Materials

Files pertaining to the United States Bureau of Radiological Health's Radiological Health Study Section, the United States National Institutes of Health's Artificial Kidney Chronic Uremia Research and Development Program, and the Pacific Science Center were separated from this accession and moved to the Albert L. Babb Papers.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Nuclear engineering --Study and teaching--Washington (State)--Seattle
  • Nuclear engineering--Study and teaching--Washington (State)--Seattle
  • Nuclear facilities--Washington (State)--Seattle
  • Nuclear facilities--Washington (State)--Seattle--Photographs
  • Nuclear reactors--Washington (State)--Seattle
  • Nuclear reactors--Washington (State)--Seattle--Design and construction--Drawings
  • University Archives/Faculty Papers (University of Washington)

Personal Names

  • Babb, Albert L. (Albert Leslie), 1925-
  • Garlid, Kermit L
  • Wessman, Harold Everett, 1899-1989
  • Woodruff, Gene L

Corporate Names

  • AMF Atomics, Inc
  • National Institutes of Health (U.S.)
  • National Science Foundation (U.S.)
  • U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
  • United States. Energy Research and Development Administration
  • University of Washington. Dept. of Nuclear Engineering--Archives
  • University of Washington. Nuclear Reactor

Other Creators

  • Corporate Names

    • University of Washington. University Archives


2008 (Last modified: 7/8/2024)

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