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Dear Friends of the BEVATRON
We are encouraged by the many concerned citizens who have recognized
the importance of this world famous structure and the need to
preserve the Bevatron for future generations.
On December 4, 2006, an appeal was formally filed by the Berkeley Friends of the Bevatron pursuant to 36 Code
of the Federal Regulations (CFR), Chapter1, Section 60.12....
to the National Parks Department. requesting a formal review
of the Bevatron Building 51/51A's and its eligibility for placement
on the National Register of Historic Places and because of the
Department of Energy’s failure to respond within the required
60 day time period, i.e. DOE’s inaction, refusal to nominate.
Appeal to Mr. Paul Lusignan,
Historian dated December 4, 2006, National Register of Historic
Places, National Park Service regarding the Bevatron. From Berkeley Friends of the Bevatron (324 KB PDF)
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  Bevatron Demolition: Uncovering the Cover-Up
Berkeley - October 21, 2009
Berkeley’s Sea Breeze Café, located at Interstate 80 and University Avenue, appears to be offering more than hot coffee to commuters these days. This morning, the cafe parking lot was the scene of a truck rally. More than a half dozen, semi truck-trailers loaded with debris from the demolition of Berkeley National Laboratory’s Bevatron made a quick stop there.
 Their cargo of concrete, shielding blocks was once used to insulate the radioactive emissions from the 1950s particle accelerator. The several-ton shields are suspected to be radioactive. However, none of the trucks were labeled as such.
Perhaps even stranger than the appearance of the unmarked demolition waste was the fact that all the drivers were pulling off the tarps covering the concrete shields after driving less than three miles from the lab. A short time later, the trucks all caravanned down the highway with their uncovered cargo. It begs the question, “Why?”
BerkeleyCitizen Berkeley’s Internet News
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 Review of Radiological Monitoring at LBNL - Final Report
Bernd Franke and Anthony Greenhouse
Prepared under Contract with the City of Berkeley, August 23, 2001
Historical exposures (1997 and earlier)
....Certainly the most significant conclusion(s) to be drawn from this limited review of environmental documents concerned the operations of the Bevatron complex and particle accelerator. IFEU determined that historic radiation doses, measured at LBNL's Olympus Gate (ENV-B13D) Direct Radiation Monitoring, Station, had exceeded the then allowed annual dose (500 mrem/y) by nearly 60%. (Note: The dose reported at Olympus Gate was calculated to be about 800 mrem/y. It should also be noted that Olympus Gate Monitoring Station is located just a few meters below a offsite residence at the intersection of Olympus Avenue and Wilson Circle.
Bevatron Demolition: Community Questions and Clarifications
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WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The Bevatron, the
largest high-energy accelerator in the world, when it opened
in 1954 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (then called
the UC Radiation Laboratory), was declared eligible on December
5, 1995, for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
On that same date the California State Office of Historic Preservation
listed the Bevatron on the California
Inventory of Historic Places.
The historic importance of this cold-war era architecturally
significant structure, the Bevatron,
renders the idea of its demolition tragic. The Bevatron meets all (3) three criteria for listing eligibility on the
National Register of Historic Places.
Criterion A. By its “significant contribution
to broad patterns of our history”, the Bevatron was among the world’s leading particle accelerators during
the 1950s and 1960s and was considered the most productive accelerator
of its time. It helped establish American leadership in scientific
research with significant contributions in the fields of particle
and nuclear physics. Four Nobel Prizes were awarded for this
research, largely conducted at the Bevatron.
Criterion B. The Bevatron is associated with many significant persons who worked at the Bevatron during the productive
period of their lives. Some spent their entire careers there.
Notably, Emilio Segre and Owen Chamberlain won the Nobel Prize
in 1959 for their discovery of the anti-proton in an experiment
at the Bevatron. Luis Alvarez won
the Nobel Prize in 1968 for his development of the bubble chamber
particle detector and for his role in finding 18 particle resonances
with the LBL bubble chamber used in conjunction with the Bevatron.
Criterion C. The Bevatron “embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type”
of building. That is, it is a distinguished example of a rare
international building type, the accelerator building. The Bevatron possesses the distinguishing characteristics of the type that
“can be expressed in terms such as form, proportion, structure,
plan, style or materials”. The design is a reflection
of the research process in form, materials, structural systems
and plan. The Bevatron illustrates
patterns associated with all accelerator buildings, the individuality
of the particular situation and the evolution of the processes
it was designed to accommodate.
Further, the Bevatron meets Critierion
C in “ representing the work of a master”, i.e.
the architectural firm of Masten and Hurd. At that time they
specialized in large-scale institutional projects, which in
addition to the Bevatron, included
San Francisco’s Hasting College of Law and Warren Hall
on the UC Berkeley campus.
The citations above are from the Dobkin/Corbett Historic Architectural
Evaluation Report prepared in1994 for the Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratory.
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