Cal Poly Nuclear Reactor 1963

January 19, 1963
The first nuclear reactor in the county wasn't at Diablo Canyon, it was at Cal Poly. The equipment was labeled Universal Nuclear which sounds like a company James Bond worked for. I'm still waiting for the promised electric power too cheap to meter. This facility has since been decommissioned. Can any Cal Poly veterans help us with further caption information?

UPDATE
There has been enough interest in this post that it was worth using my newfound microfilm research skills to add to the original entry. I fell for the slug written on the negative sleeve that said NUCLEAR REACTOR and assumed it was same the reactor I had heard about being decommissioned early in my Cal Poly days.

The published caption reads:

CHECKS REACTOR…Dr. Arthur Rosen of the Physical Sciences department at Cal Poly checks out part of the subcritical reactor assembly now nearing operational condition. In the foreground is the control console. Part of a grant from the Atomic Energy commission the assembly will be used as a teaching aid in a two year sequence of courses in nuclear physics and engineering for physics and mechanical engineering majors. (Telegram-Tribune photo).

Five paragraphs into the story the article says “…the equipment should be more aptly called a subcritical assembly and not a reactor since a reactor implies a self-sustaining unit–which it is not.”

The assembly’s output amounted to five milliwatts. (A milliwatt is 1/1000th of a watt, not enough to light a standard bulb.)

You can pick on the writer and editors but tell the truth, how many of you would stop to read an article on an aptly named subcritical assembly? It sounds like seven syllables of mind numbing boredom. Reactor in the classroom, hey I’ll read about that every time.

Nothing in the article addresses how safe the $100,000 of fuel on loan from the AEC was. It is not likely that you would find 5,500 pounds of any type of uranium fuel without major league security today.

Thanks to everyone who contributed their expertise to the comments. Keep ‘em coming.

Another interesting article was at the top right of A1, pitting members of the Arroyo Grande Sportsmen’s club against a state beaches and parks proposal to close Pismo Beach to cars. Our state senator at the time was named Vernon L. Sturgeon who told the sportsmen to fight for access. He also said he was pursuing the purchase of Rancho Montaña de Oro as state park land.