Is our community food system sustainable? Is it secure? Can we establish more opportunities for fresh, healthy, locally grown food? These were among the questions explored by faculty experts and students in the University of Virginia’s Department of Urban and Environmental Planning who spent the spring semester assessing Charlottesville’s regional food system. A second meeting of interested community members, students and professors at U.Va. will explore best-practices to support local farming and begin laying the groundwork for the development of a Regional Community Food Plan. The meeting will be held on Thursday at the Gordon Avenue Library from noon to 2 p.m. Full story.

U.Va. News Services

In 1960, the University of Virginia was on the forefront of the emerging field of nuclear energy. With an initial power level of 1 million watts, U.Va. boasted the third-most powerful research reactor in the nation. At full power, the reactor (above) emitted a brilliant blue glow, caused by high-energy electrons as they shot out from the reactor’s core faster than the speed of light and slowed in the surrounding pool, known as the Cerenkov effect — after the Russian scientist who was finally able to explain it. But its early promise for a bright future was dimmed in the wake of the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and extinguished after the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine in 1986. On July 1, 1998, after a 38-year run, U.Va.’s nuclear reactor closed its doors. Full story.

U.Va. Magazine