The Chalk River Labs are built on the banks of the Ottawa River, in Ontario, Canada. Originally built after World War II for continued allied atomic research, the labs were initially part of the National Research Council.
Back in 1997, the keepers of the $70-million atom-shooting device in Chalk River had an explosive situation on their hands, literally.
There weren't enough funds to keep the machine running, shutting it down would have destroyed it, and with a huge lay-off looming for the skilled technicians, trying to keep the equipment running could have caused it to explode.
Division director John Hardy said he was hesitant to pull the plug. If the cyclotron warmed up from its deep freeze of -270 C, the temperature change would have made its insides crack and leak, rendering it a $70-million pile of junk.
But had the lay-offs of experienced workers went as scheduled, the 1,000 gallons of liquid nitrogen used to cool the device may have heated up and exploded.
Stranger than Fiction Magazine is your premier source for tales of the bizarre and extraordinary. Published quarterly. Established 2004.
Summer 2004 issue (here)
