Building 51 and Bevatron Demolition

Building 51, which housed the Bevatron, was an approximately 125,000 gross-square-foot, steel-frame structure built in the early 1950s. The building was located in the west-central part of Berkeley Lab and occupied approximately 2.25 acres. During its operation from 1954 until 1993, the Bevatron was among the world’s leading particle accelerators, and during the 1950s and 1960s, four Nobel Prizes were awarded for work conducted in whole or in part there.

The objective of the project was to remove a substandard building and its contents. Neither the Bevatron nor Building 51 are needed by the Lab. Building 51 was seismically inadequate, old, and deteriorating (credit price) . Demolition freed up the site for future development.

Environmental Documents 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory issued environmental documents for proposed activities. These are listed below in reverse chronological order, with the most recently issued documents listed at the top. Most documents are in .pdf format and require Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing. Download a free copy from Adobe’s website.