M Glow Blue

In 1957, the University of Michigan campus sported a fully functional nuclear reactor, complete with a 55,000gallon glowing reactor pool. Bentley collections help tell the story of why the reactor was built—and what happened to it.

By Madeleine Bradford

IN 1947, THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN HATCHED A PHOENIX. Phoenix-funded 1952 creation of the “bubble chamber,” a vessel of

The Memorial Phoenix Project, anyway. superheated liquid through which the delicate, spiraling paths of

World War II had just ended. Facing what they hoped would be subatomic particles can be traced, earned U-M Physics Professor an era of peace, U-M also faced tragedy—the loss of 585 students, Donald Glaser the 1960 Nobel Prize. faculty, and staff members. Over the years, however, justifying the costs of running the reac-

With that loss came a crucial question: How do you memorial- tor became more and more difficult. By 2000, academic uses of the ize that many lives? reactor declined; governmental and industrial ones began taking

According to The Michigan Daily, alumni didn’t want a “mere their place. The University faced a hard decision. mound of stone, the purpose of which would soon be forgotten.” The project was too important to the U-M community to allow it

Enter alumnus Fred J. Smith. to die. The Phoenix Project prepared to undergo a transformation

Everyone had seen the destructive side of nuclear research, but to match its namesake. Reactor operations stopped in 2003. he thought that surely it had constructive potential, too. What Decommissioning was a complicated process. about a functional memorial? What if the University used nuclear Which walls had tools hung on? Which surfaces had any radiaenergy to help, rather than harm? tion touched? These were the questions asked as the careful dis-

The idea sparked one of the U-M’s first major fundraising cam- assembly began. Lists were made. Soil and groundwater were paigns. Millions of dollars of donations later, including a large sampled and tested. Thousands of cubic feet of high-density congrant from the Ford Motor Co., the idea became a reality. U-M had crete were stripped from the empty pool where the reactor core was created a project devoted to peaceful uses of nuclear energy, rising once suspended. from the ashes of war. Once the building returned to levels of radiation deemed appro-

They called it the Memorial Phoenix Project. priate by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it was reopened

Officially established in 1948, it was a living, continuous work, for use. The old nuclear reactor area, renovated, now serves as lab inviting researchers from all corners of the University. The new space for Nuclear Engineering research, with thick walls perfect Memorial Phoenix Laboratory rose as one of the earliest buildings on for the work. North Campus, on what is now Bonisteel Boulevard. Construction In 2013, the greenhouse of the Phoenix Memorial Laboratory began in the spring of 1954, and continued through 1956. Even once it was replaced with a new, modern addition. Still, if you go into the was built, the reactor was predicted to take “six months or a year” to Laboratory lobby, you will see two enormous gray plaques on the reach full power, before any studies could begin. wall. One lists donors, whose belief in the Memorial Phoenix Proj-

Up went lab spaces, a greenhouse, and, at the end furthest ect made it real. from the road, the Ford Nuclear Reactor. In 1957, “the beast,” as a The other plaque shares the names of staff, faculty, and stufew operators had taken to affectionately calling it, became fully dents who gave their lives in World War II, featuring the words: operational. “Dedicated to the study of peaceful uses of atomic energy.”

“It worked!” announced a 1957 memo to the laboratory staff. Oper- The Memorial Phoenix Project became the Michigan Memoating at two megawatts of power, the “icy blue glow” rial Phoenix Energy Institute in 2006, later shortof the more than 55,000 gallon reactor pool (a prod- (Left) The ened to the Energy Institute. Through cleaner energy, uct of Cherenkov radiation emanating from its fuel 55,000-gallon improved batteries and fuels, and better systems of rods), would inspire the motto of the reactor workers: reactor pool of transportation, the Energy Institute is still trying to “M-Glow Blue!” the Ford Nuclear improve the world today. It serves—much the way the

Project proposals flooded in—from archaeologists Reactor. Memorial Phoenix Project did—as an interdisciplinary hoping to date coins and bones, to botanists hoping to study the effects of radiation exposure on plants, to (This page) Architect’s drawing of hub for energy research at U-M. A collection of Memorial Phoenix Project files is doctors hoping to explore cures using radiant energy. the Phoenix Me- located at the Bentley Historical Library with infor-

Cancer treatment, bone grafts, freshwater mus- morial Laboratory, mation about the projects it funded, the history of sels, medieval coins, and an Egyptian mummy were built in 1956. its founding, and even a hand-drawn draft of just some of the more than 800 subjects that the logo: a round nest of flames, and the Phoenix Project helped to study. It from it, the phoenix still rising. spurred invention, too; the