Plainsboro’s nuclear history marked by old reactor dome

Fifty years ago, 10 big corporations combined to build test facility

By: Greg Forester
   PLAINSBORO — A 90-foot concrete football rises out of the wilderness off Schalk’s Crossing Road, in what is a piece of physical evidence of Plainsboro’s place in the history of nuclear energy in the United States.
   What looks like signs of a Martian landing and base of operations is the building that used to house the nation’s first privately owned nuclear reactor that called Plainsboro, N.J., home.
   The story of Plainsboro’s silver football began 50 years ago when a consortium major companies called Industrial Reactor Laboratories won the go-ahead to build the 5 million-watt research reactor.
   They received approval for the building at a Planning Board session held at a secret location with the purpose of stymieing the efforts of protesting members of the community, according to old newspaper articles on file at the Plainsboro Historical Society.
   While the reactor and much of the equipment is gone today, pharmaceutical research is still conducted in the reactor dome, and people still use the large office building next door.
   Creating the oddly-shaped building was apparently quite an experience.
   Matt Hafenmaier, a Plainsboro resident, had just graduated high school in 1956 and signed on to help build the reactor facilities.
   "Ten different companies worked on it and were going to use it for their research," said Mr. Hafenmaier. "I had just gotten out of high school and helped build the $3 million project."
   The list of member companies of IRL reads like a who’s-who list of American industrial might a half-century ago, including The American Tobacco Co., Continental Can Co., RCA, Atlas Powder Co., Socony Mobil, American Machine & Foundry, National Lead Company, National Distillers, U.S. Rubber Co., and Corning Glass.
   The companies’ endeavor provided work of some 100 construction workers at certain times, Mr. Hafenmaier said.
   Mr. Hafanmaier’s future wife even worked at the facility, as a secretary in one of the adjacent office buildings.
   The reactor building was built from the ground up to its 87-foot height by pouring concrete mixed with iron — for better radioactive shielding — into plywood forms in various thicknesses up to the pinnacle of the "beehive" dome.
   Parts of the cone were sprayed with a concrete-and-water mixture known as gunite, with the outer surface consisting of an aluminum skin that makes the building glint brilliantly in sunny photographs.
   The finished reactor building had concrete walls that were eight feet thick at some places, with the thickness tapering off near the top.
   Inside was what is known as a "pool-type" reactor, mainly used to for research purposes, and sometimes used for heat generation.
   The device gets its name from the way it works, with the reactor in Plainsboro consisting of a 30-foot deep "swimming pool" full of demineralized water that was kept at temperatures around 95 degrees.
   The swimming pool held the nuclear reaction, providing coolant, shielding, and a moderator all at once while allowing the member companies to conduct experiments for their various fields.
   After the IRL consortium stopped working at the facility, Columbia University took over, conducting nuclear research for another 10 years, according to the historical society.
   Nowadays, the property has gone back to the original leaser, the Walker-Gordon Co., although Jacobus Pharmaceutical conducts research within the reactor buildings, along with the Walker Gordon Laboratory Co., according to the historical society.
   But don’t worry, the people now working in the old reactor building don’t come out glowing green and setting off Geiger counters.
   "The government came in after the reactor operation ceased in the 1970s and blasted off six inches of contaminated concrete lining the walls," said Mr. Hafenmaier.
   While the reactor building continues to stand today, in other parts of Plainsboro, nuclear research continues at the Princeton University’s Plasma Physics Laboratory.
   "Plainsboro has a long history of being the site of much research," said Plainsboro Historical Society Director Robert Yuell. "The IRL reactor is just one cog in the wheel."
   It’s all part of a long history of nuclear Plainsboro.