The Department of Nuclear Engineering celebrated its 50-year anniversary in September with festivities, lab tours and a look back at its key role in the history of nuclear science. But attendees also looked forward, as department chair Jasmina Vujic announced the opening of the Berkeley Nuclear Research Center and two new experimental laboratories on campus. Go to http://anniversary.nuc.berkeley.edu for more.

 

Nuclear Engineering at UC Berkeley

1939: Physicist Ernest O. Lawrence first UC Berkeley professor to receive Nobel Prize

February 1941:  Glenn Seaborg discovers plutonium in Gilman Hall

February 1942: Seaborg and colleagues discover fissionable nature of uranium-233

Fall 1958: Chancellor Seaborg founds NE department; Thomas Pigford appointed chair one year later

January 1965: Department moves into newly constructed Etcheverry Hall

August 1966: Training Research Isotope General Atomic (TRIGA) reactor becomes operational, achieves sustained nuclear chain reaction

December 1979: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission petitioned to decommission Berkeley’s TRIGA reactor

1986: Pigford joins U.S. team invited by Soviet Academy of Sciences to study Chernobyl

1988: Kenneth Fowler and others develop plans for International Thermonuclear Experiment Reactor (ITER)

1990s: Per Peterson and Virgil Schrock develop passive safety systems for light water reactors

1995: William Kastenberg spearheads Center for Nuclear and Toxic Waste Management

Late 1990s: Bruce Hasegawa and UCSF colleagues invent SPECT/CT system, now widely used for medical imaging

2000s: Ehud Greenspan develops advanced fuel cycles for generation-IV reactors

2006: Passive safety features studied at Berkeley in 1990s integrated into most new reactors

2008: Department of Nuclear Engineering celebrates 50-year anniversary

 

General Nuclear History Facts

1920s: Researchers begin to probe atomic nucleus

1930s: Sir James Chadwick discovers neutrons; fusion and fission discovered

December 2, 1942: Chicago Pile 1 goes critical

July 16, 1945: First atomic bomb detonated at Alamogordo, New Mexico

December 20, 1951: First nuclear-powered electricity generated by Experimental Breeder Reactor 1

Late 1960s: Soviet scientists develop the tokamak for magnetic confinement fusion

Early 1970s: Atomic Energy Council raises reactor safety issues

1976: California State Legislature prohibits new nuclear power plant construction

March 28, 1979, 4 a.m.: Accident at Three Mile Island Unit 2 Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania

Late 1970s: Major utilities stop ordering new nuclear power plants

1985: Gorbachev proposes fusion project for peaceful purposes at Geneva Summit

April 26, 1986: Worst nuclear power plant accident in history occurs at Chernobyl

1987: Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments specify Yucca Mountain as site for U.S. spent fuel repository

1997: General Electric’s ABWR design receives first USNRC standard design certification

2000: USNRC issues first 20-year license renewal for Calvert Cliffs, Units 1 and 2

2005: ITER partners select Cadarache,  France, to build fusion reactor

2007: Utilities submit first Combined Construction and Operating License applications for new plants to USNRC