DOE's New Brunswick Lab To Celebrate 50th Anniversary

On May 25, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) New Brunswick Laboratory (NBL; Argonne, IL) will celebrate its 50th Anniversary with an all-day open house. One of only a few DOE government owned and operated laboratories, NBL focuses on analytical chemistry and the science of measuring nuclear materials. It serves as the government's nuclear materials measurements and standards laboratory.

Established in 1949 by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (a DOE predecessor agency), NBL was initially located in New Brunswick, NJ. NBL's original mission was to provide the federal government with capabilities for analyzing uranium-containing materials for the nation's developing atomic energy program. Scientists from the National Bureau of Standards, who conducted nuclear materials measurements for the Manhattan Project in the 1940s and 1950s, served as NBL staff. Between 1975 and 1977, NBL was relocated to its current Illinois site.

NBL researchers also support DOE's commitment to reduce inventories of surplus weapons-usable fissile materials worldwide in a safe, secure, transparent, and irreversible manner. As qualified U.S. nuclear monitors, they recently monitored four Russian nuclear sites to insure the integrity of the Russian program for blending down highly enriched uranium.

NBL is a component of DOE's Chicago Operations Office, and receives major funding from DOE's Office of Safeguards and Security.

For more information, call Dennis Troutman of NBL at 630-252-2470, or e-mail dennis.troutman@ch.doe.gov.