Help please! Any remnants of the Atomic Age on ISU's campus?
- Thread starter Kagavi
- Start date
I went down into the reactor housing last week and just looked around. It's pretty crazy.
I work in FP&M computer support so I get access to everything :v_SPIN:
I work in FP&M computer support so I get access to everything :v_SPIN:
To expand on Judoka's answer...
NDE is primarily in ASC II and ASC III. We have a lot of labs for the various inspection techniques (ultrasound, magnetic particle, eddy current, thermal, terahertz electromagnetic waves, radiography). As I mentioned in my earlier post, we do have lab space in the basement of ASC I for our largest x-ray tube. We do diffraction experiments in there, and the large space provided by the old pump room really helps those types of experiments.
ASC I is primarily the Micro-electronics Research Center. I'm not really sure what they do, but I think solar cells are a big deal for them.
I should know this being an Ames native, but where exactly is this? Thanks for the replies so far, its very helpful--I may PM some of you later for more info.
My mom worked as a secretary at the Atomic Energy Commission back in the late 40's. She said that when nuclear material came in all they did was clear the building out. It was usually contained in cardboard boxes with little other protection! To this day she still gets tested for effects of radiation exposure from those days. Fortunately nothing has ever shown up.
The nuclear reactor at ISU is now gone, but I remember "hearing" about some areas on campus that were sealed from radiation leakage. I just can't remember where they were at. Amazingly, ISU is rarely if ever mentioned when the Manhattan project is discussed. Yet, ISU was primarily responsible for developing the process that allowed uranium to be refined in large enough quantities to supply the nuclear program.
The nuclear reactor at ISU is now gone, but I remember "hearing" about some areas on campus that were sealed from radiation leakage. I just can't remember where they were at. Amazingly, ISU is rarely if ever mentioned when the Manhattan project is discussed. Yet, ISU was primarily responsible for developing the process that allowed uranium to be refined in large enough quantities to supply the nuclear program.
Email the University Archives at [email protected] and explain what you want. If there is information that can be copied and sent (or emailed), that is the best way to go about doing it. I work there, but I'm not the one who does the email reference requests. Just be thorough with what you are asking/needing. You can also call the front desk (515-294-6672), but you might get a student who will just have to pass it off to someone else anyway. Emailing is the better option.
One building on campus, I think it was either physics or entomology, was designed so that that roof would "hinge" open in the event of an explosion. They designed an escape route for the pressure wave as to limit destruction. I don't have anything to prove that but I recall that from a campus tour. Cool stuff.
I was kind of wondering the same thing when I read the original post. I see that kagavi.com is down as of now. Kagavi.com claims to be some kind of company but their only products to date are one T-shirt which supposedly had a limited run of 50 and "storytelling" about his grandpa. Interesting.
PS: Kagavi.com seems to be back up now: http://www.kagavi.com/category/blog/ and http://www.kagavi.com/about/
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This video was awesome in showing a lot of the equipment and uniforms used during the 1950s. I wonder if any remnants of the robot arms at 8:43, or the room at 10:21 exist?
Are there any pictures of this reactor housing? Does it still look like an artifact of the 1950s? PM if you want.
Haha, no I'm not planning anything nefarious. I actually just launched a couple of weeks ago, and since I'm a native of Ames and an ISU grad, I wanted to start with ISU stories and expand my company from there. It's an evolving storytelling project--I'm attempting to supersede the normal boundaries of an entertainment company and a retail company. Rest assured multiple people on here can vouch for me, including Chris Williams and Adam Gray.
The awesome stories and research taking place in this thread is for my next major ISU project that will release in the late spring or early summer. All of my upcoming ISU stories are rooted in the spirit of my Grandpa's campfire stories of adventure and I have tens of thousands of dollars worth of unique ISU projects/products in production right now for later this year. I'm so excited to share them in the future and I'll be sure to advertise them on CF like I did with my original shirt release. (Although I have just one shirt, I wanted to open to the public now so people can follow along on our journey.)
Thanks everyone for the stories, they are fascinating-- keep them coming! Does anyone know the exact location of the mysterious woods mentioned on the second page?
Interesting video. The security facade reminds me of the TSA.
For instance, they check the "casket" for radiation leaks after the driver spreads his legs to step over it in the back of his truck. They have an 8 inch thick wall for the "cave," but it is open at the top. They assume that low levels of radiation found on clothing can be taken care of by laundering.
Amazing research going on with lots of safety "protocols," but it doesn't look very safe to me.
For instance, they check the "casket" for radiation leaks after the driver spreads his legs to step over it in the back of his truck. They have an 8 inch thick wall for the "cave," but it is open at the top. They assume that low levels of radiation found on clothing can be taken care of by laundering.
Amazing research going on with lots of safety "protocols," but it doesn't look very safe to me.
If you have Chris Williams to vouch for you that's about as good as it gets around here! Good luck on the startup. Have you submitted your business plan to your major prof or anyone else for review?
I graduated in 2006, but I will say the process of becoming a licensee for ISU involved quite a bit of preparation. My business plan is essentially to go into debt up to my eyeballs making awesome stuff. Ha. (This thread has more info if you are interested.)
The Ames power plant over East of downtown has a hinged roof on the very top. There's a small room up there where they auger up all the coal, and then it runs on a short belt where it drops in & "feeds the beast". That room needed an escape valve in case of coal dust explosions. IIRC, when we took the tour in the late 80's, it had already exploded once or twice. Nothing serious, just a little boom.
I thought the same thing, "To monitor who goes in the cave, they must sign in/out"
We're worried about radiation, so we drive the casket in a pick up with no tailgate.
The following document is a great read for those really interested in ISU's link to the atomic age. I think I was first put onto this by the "Urban Exploring" megathread when it first started years ago. This link is to a copy of CS Payne's thesis on The Ames Project.
http://cph.uiowa.edu/iowafwp/documents/CS_Payne_PhD_Thesis.pdf
http://cph.uiowa.edu/iowafwp/documents/CS_Payne_PhD_Thesis.pdf
The chemical storeroom in the back of Gillman also has a hinged roof for the same reason, or at least it did a decade ago.
