Focus at Four: The “atom smasher” at Texas A&M Celebrates 60 years
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – If you are familiar with the Texas A&M campus, you might be aware of a particle accelerator or “atom smasher”.
Don’t let the name scare you, it is a fascinating piece of nuclear technology that has been teaching researchers for over half a century.
Fred Abegglen, Texas A&M’s Chief of Operations, joined First News at Four on Friday to discuss the Cyclotron Institute during the year of its 60th anniversary.
Abegglen says Cyclotron isn’t dangerous.
“We make ions and we accelerate them out of the machine to do nuclear research and nuclear chemistry experiments,” he said.
But nuclear research isn’t surrounded by destruction and fear for the institute. In fact, quite the opposite.
“Besides the nuclear physics and chemistry research, the big thing we’re doing right now is what’s called single event effect testing. So everything that flies in space, we test there to see if the electronics can survive up in the upper atmosphere. We did all the OnStar stuff years ago, Mars Rover, the SpaceX stuff, all the things that actually fly” said Abegglen.
He said that the research at the institute has been progressing well in the 60 years since it began.
“Our research staff generate probably 100 papers a year and they’re on the cutting edge of science,” said Abegglen, “The staff has grown immensely. Our scientists are second to none. Our research staff is great, our operations staff is second to none. It’s a great group of people to work with and it’s a very great learning experience to be there.”
