New England Nuclear

New England Nuclear Corporation was founded in Boston in 1956 by Edward Shapiro and Seymour Rothschild to make radioactive chemicals for research and medicine, with its main plant at 549 and 575 Albany Street. In 1967 the federal government approved its TechneLite technetium generator, and that year the company bought most of the old Lucy H. Foster farm on Treble Cove Road in North Billerica. By 1968 it had finished two buildings there and planned what the town's Industrial Commission called "the only privately owned Cyclatron in the United States". It began a large addition in 1973, hoping to move its whole operation to Billerica, and in 1974 it shared the cost of a town sewer to the plant, telling Town Meeting it was considering "adding an estimated 500 jobs". Its wetlands filings of 1978 and 1980 describe a linear accelerator facility, new roadways and a new power line at "601 Treble Cove Road", and the 1985 Polk city directory listed "New England Nuclear Radiopharmaceutical" at 600 Treble Cove Road. E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company bought the company in 1981, bought the 17-acre Maislin Transport truck terminal beside the plant that October and two more lots on Treble Cove Road in 1984, and merged New England Nuclear into DuPont on June 29, 1984. DuPont kept the New England Nuclear name on the plant: from July 1, 1984 its federal licenses were held by "E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., NEN Products", a 1985 wetlands order went to "Dupont NEN Products, Inc.", and a 1985 special permit for a building addition to "E.I. DuPont DeNemours and Company D/B/A New England Nuclear Corp." On January 1, 1991 DuPont put the plant into The Du Pont Merck Pharmaceutical Company, its new partnership with Merck.