![]() ![]() Almost single-handedly, he persuaded the Virginia legislature to make a $350,000 appropriation to fund the reactor. An electrical engineer by training, he had designed the controls for the first power reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Quarles (Engr ’29, Grad ’35), said during its dedication in the fall of 1960. “From the beginning, we have tried to present a complete and true picture of the reactor so that there would be no fear of the unknown,” the dean of the Engineering School, Lawrence R. Conditions were ripe, born in part by a confluence of faculty who shared a strong interest in the emerging field of nuclear power and a belief that the atom could be harnessed for good instead of evil. It was the age of the peaceful atom, and UVA was among the first wave of colleges and universities to seize upon this new research tool. ![]() Just west of Grounds, they were building a nuclear reactor. Workers dynamited the rocky hillside and backhoes groaned as they uprooted trees to clear the way for a singular venture, one that promised to usher the University of Virginia into the modern era. In early 1958, the reservoir on Mount Jefferson, a secluded swimming hole popular with students, rippled in the gust of nearby blasts. In its watery depths, the nuclear reactor core glows a bright blue, the result of charged particles slowing to the speed of light and radiating electromagnetic energy. ![]()
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