"AEC Names 200 BeV Accelerator in Honor of Enrico Fermi" Press Release — April 29, 1969
April 29, 1969
Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, today announced that the Commission will name the National Accelerator Laboratory, now under construction near Chicago, in honor of the late Dr. Enrico Fermi.
Formal dedication and naming of the Enrico Fermi Laboratory will not take place until major construction work has been completed and the facility is in operation, probably in the fall of 1972.
Dr. Seaborg, in announcing the AEC's plans said: "It is particularly fitting that we honor Dr. Fermi in this manner, for in so doing we further acknowledge his many contributions to the progress of nuclear science, particularly his work on nuclear processes.
"Enrico Fermi was a physicist of great renown who contributed in a most significant way to the defense and welfare of his adopted land and to the enhancement of its intellectual well-being. His greatest achievement, the first sustained nuclear chain reaction, took place in a small laboratory in Chicago. It seems singularly appropriate, therefore, that the Federal Government recognize the memory of a man who was at the forefront of science in his day by naming in his honor a laboratory near Chicago– a laboratory which will have a major international impact on our understanding of the basic structure of matter."
When completed, the laboratory will be the home of the world 's highest energy proton accelerator and will cost approximately $250 million plus outlays for experimental equipment. The laboratory is being developed on a 6,800-acre site about thirty miles west of Chicago near the town of Batavia, Illinois. By 1975, it is expected to have a permanent staff of about 1,650 scientists and supporting personnel, and about 350 visiting scientists are expected to be at the laboratory at any given time.
The Atomic Energy Commission 's Chicago Operations Office under Kenneth A. Dunbar, Manager, provides on-site administration of design, engineering, contracting and construction of the accelerator facility through its 200 BeV Area Office. The area office is headed by Kennedy C. Brooks.
The Universities Research Association (URA), consisting of 49 leading universities in the United States and one in Canada, is under contract to the AEC for design and construction work and is expected to operate the laboratory. Dr. Norman F. Ramsey is president of URA, which has established the National Accelerator Laboratory on the site with Dr. Robert R. Wilson as director.
The proton accelerator will have an energy of 200 billion electron volts (BeV), greater than now available at any accelerator. The design incorporates features to permit the energy to be extended to about 400 BeV at a later date.
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NOTE TO EDITORS AND CORRESPONDENTS: This information is being issued simultaneously by AEC Headquarters in Washington, D. C .
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"NAL to become Enrico Fermi Laboratory in 1972" (article) — April 1969