Weird & wonderful: ORNL's High Flux Isotope Reactor sometimes
attracts the unusual The High Flux Isotope Reactor has been a
research workhorse since the 1960s, reliably producing
radioisotopes for medicine and industry and generating a
bountiful stream of neutrons for science experiments that
explore the very essence of materials. But the Oak Ridge reactor
also has a wild and crazy side and occasionally gets called upon
for unusual tasks, such as determining whether POTUS No. 12 was
poisoned or helping the Mars candy folks get the desired crunch
in their new Pretzel M&M's. Over the past two years, rare
archaeological artifacts -- some of them excavated at the
ancient city of Petra (in current-day Jordan) -- were brought to
Oak Ridge National Laboratory for 3-D neutron images that in
some cases answered scholars' questions about an object's
identity or shed new light on how they were made. "It was very
exciting," Hassina Bilheux, ORNL's lead scientist for neutron
imaging, said Wednesday. "You don't usually get