University of Washington. Dept. of Nuclear Engineering.

The University of Washington Department of Nuclear Engineering, which was established officially in 1965 offered undergraduate and graduate degrees in nuclear engineering until 1993, when it was disbanded, owing primarily to low enrollment and diverging faculty research interests.

Nuclear engineering classes had been taught at the University of Washington before the establishment the Department, as early as 1953. During the 1970s, the Department broadened its curriculum to include plasma physics and nuclear fusion. Departmental chairs were Dr. Albert "Les" Babb (1965-1981, 1984 -1986), Gene L. Woodruff (1981-1984), and Kermit L. Garlid (1986-1993). From 1961 to 1988, the Department operated a 100 kilowatt, water-graphite moderated nuclear reactor which was used for research and education. A significant accident, detected in 1972, came to be known as the "plutonium contamination incident." During the years in which Babb led the program, the Department also particpated in several notable advances in the field of hemodialysis.

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