_ ission g,u_ . . - -e _st_ _ _ __ n the years since the bombing
Professor William Barnes, a nuclear engineering lab originally used it to m easure thr depth power sou rce to be instructive as of snow on Moscow Mountain. A well as destructive. And, as with radiochemistry class uses the m a n y major u niversities, the UI reactor to analyze c h e mical has become a stage for this samples. research . The reactor. located across the Radioactivity research in street from th e Agricultural Moscow ranged from finding the Engineering Building on Sixth moisture content of soils to Street. consists of 5.000 pounds plumbing the crystal structures of natural uranium that proof m eta ls to studying the duces a radioactive "flux" but be havior of the atom itself. no power or heat. "Although Richard Bull of the animal that may sound like a lot of sciences lab radioactively "tags" uranium, the type used in come nzymes and hormones in the mercial reactors is highly bodies of animals. "We can ac- enriched. Ours isn ' t capable of tivate rare minerals in these much output," Barnes said. substances and then introduce "We try to give students inthem into the animal's body. terested in nuclear power a basic This allows us to follow them knowledge of how the process through the body to see how works," he added. they work, giving us some inBarnes felt the language used sight into how the human body's in the field gave many people hormones work," he said. poor view of nuclear energy. Geological researcher Charles "Words like critical. superKnowles uses X-rays in looking critical, poison. etc. don't signify at small samples of minerals and out of the ordinary conditions. in determining the age of but sound bad just the same." volcanic ash. "Nuclear energy and radioac"It allows us to analyze an ar- tive research in general has cheological find or an ore deposit received a lot of bad press. mostwithout having to use a large ly from the destructive side of it. sample. Thus, we can avoid hav- Many people don 't realize the ing to purify the ore very much good things that come from it." or risk destroying an important Barnes said. find," he continued. As work done at the universiThe UI also allowed students ty showed, nuclear research had to get experience with an actual many peacetime applications as nuclear reactor. According to well. 0
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Inuclear research h as shown this
Towing the Line. Removing nuclear fuel core rods for analyzatlon gave Dave Hahn and Kurt Ham路 man an opportunity to better understand nuclear energy. A small nuclear reactor was located on the University of Idaho campus so students dld not have to travel hundreds of miles to get first-hand nuclear experience.
Handle with Care. HoUywood's portrayal of nuclear and genetic research has not always been favorable. S. Kumar. a researcher In these fields, said, however. that with precautions. nuclear and genetic research can be quite safe.
Radiation
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