One of the challenges facing the control of nuclear weapons technology has been the use of high enrichment uranium (weapons-grade) in small research reactors used around the world for nuclear research. Research reactors such as the Ford Nuclear reactor used fuel designs from the early nuclear submarine program that became a great concern because of their high enrichment fuel. The University of Michigan led a major program to redesign these research reactors so that they could be refueled with low enrichment (non-weapons-grade) fuels, thereby preventing these facilities to pose a risk to nuclear weapons proliferation. The director of the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project and Chairman of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Science who led this effort was Professor John Lee.

Refueling the Ford Nuclear Reactor

With low enrichment Uranium