The Nuclear Heritage group (SPCNHI) has now been receiving welcome donations of artifacts for several years. Many of these donations start with a phone call from a donor followed by a pick-up by a Society member or a drop-off at the 51 Poplar storage facility. Some donations, however, have a more complicated story and route.
One of the early Society supporters was Warren Funk, who worked in the Accelerator Physics Branch at CRNL from 1971 to 1990. When Warren, Dorothy and family left AECL for a position with an accelerator lab in the USA, Warren was presented with two momentos of his work at CRNL. One of these was a short section of an accelerator module used in tests to produce the Therac 25 medical accelerator produced by CRNL for the Commercial Products division of AECL. A second artifact was a model of an accelerator section developed by CRNL under commercial contract as the Canadian contribution to the DESY high-energy accelerator in Germany.
Warren was happy to donate these artifacts to the Society but a slight problem arose. The Funks now reside in Hunt, Texas, and getting the artifacts to Deep River presented a problem. Fortunately, a solution was found. The Funks brought the two artifacts to Winnipeg during a family visit in 2017, leaving them in the home of a family member of the Artifacts Chair, Jim Ungrin. During a recent visit to western Canada, Jim was able to retrieve the two items and bring them home to the Society storage facility.
Another artifact that has had a similar complicated route to the Society is an artifact generated to commemorate the official opening of the Algoma Uranium Mine in 1957. The artifact consists of samples of uranium ore and uranium oxide encased in acrylic. It was presented to the Bank of Montreal and has been sitting in the vaults of the main office in Montreal for many years. BMO were happy to donate the artifact to the Society but once again, getting it to Deep River presented a problem. Neither Canada Post nor the normal array of commercial couriers are willing to accept for delivery the slightly radioactive material even though it is safely encased in its plastic case. Fortunately, the Society has a member living in Montreal who has volunteered to pick up the artifact and deliver it to Deep River on his next visit.
The Society continues to welcome all nuclear artifacts wherever they may be located and will strive to find ways to transport them to the storage facility. To make arrangements contact the Society at nuclearheritage.ca, any society member or Jim Ungrin at 613 584 3055 or ungrinjr@gmail.com
