Cryonics Institute
Encyclopedia
The Cryonics Institute (CI) is a member-owned-and-operated not-for-profit corporation which provides cryonics
services. It is located in Clinton Township, Michigan
.
As of 1 July 2011, CI had 938 members, 459 of whom had funding and contracts in place to be cryopreserved upon legal death. 105 of those funded members had contracts with Suspended Animation, Inc
. for standby and transport. 106 human
s and 179 human tissue
/DNA
samples and 80 pet
s and 51 pet tissue/DNA samples are cryonically preserved in liquid nitrogen
storage.
on 4 April 1976 by four local residents: Richard C. Davis, Robert Ettinger
, Mae A. Junod and Walter E. Runkel. Ettinger is widely known as "the father of cryonics" because his book The Prospect of Immortality is believed to have launched the cryonics movement. CI's first client was Ettinger's mother in 1977, and until the beginning of the 1990s, only one more client came along. This was Ettinger's first wife in 1987.
In March 1978, the Cryonics Institute purchased a building near Detroit. It served as its location until 1994, when the organization moved to the new Erfurt Runkel Building. It is named after John C Erfurt and Walter E. Runkel (which are now both in suspension there), and has a sprinkler system for additional security.
Ettinger was CI President
for over 25 years until September 2003, when Ben Best
became President/CEO
and Ettinger became Vice-President. Ettinger retired as Vice-President on his 87th birthday in December 2005, but remained a Director until new Directors were elected in September 2006. For most of the 1990s, Best was President of the Cryonics Society of Canada (CSC) and was Editor
of Canadian Cryonics News until the last issue was published in Spring of 2000. He is still a Director
of CSC.
In 2003, an article was published in Sports Illustrated
magazine
centering around the cryonics
organization Alcor Life Extension Foundation
; the article contained accusations from a fired Alcor employee alleging Alcor had mishandled the cryopreservation of baseball
star Ted Williams
. Despite the fact that the Cryonics Institute was not involved in the case, the media hype spurred the state
of Michigan
to place CI under a "Cease and Desist" order for six months.
Finally, the Michigan
government decided to license
and regulate the Cryonics Institute as a cemetery
.
This is the reason why, since then, the perfusion of the bodies cannot be performed in the building itself anymore. In accordance to law, it must be done at the facilities of a funeral director.
All Officers of the Cryonics Institute are also Directors. As of 2010, the Cryonics Institute Officers were:
on its Board
, four of whom are elected by the members every year at the Annual General Meeting (usually held on the last Sunday of September). The Board then selects the Officers: President
, Vice-President, Secretary
and Treasurer
. All members of the board are volunteers.
Unlike other cryonics
organizations, the Cryonics Institute only allows its members to arrange for whole body storage, not simply heads (neuropreservation
). Anyone can become a Lifetime Member by paying $1,250 and filling out a membership form—or become a Yearly Member by paying a $75 Initiation fee plus $120 per year (or $35 per quarter). A Lifetime Member has the privilege of making arrangements for perfusion and storage in liquid nitrogen
for $28,000, whereas a Yearly Member must pay $35,000. CI has not raised the $28,000 price or $1,250 fee since the time of its inception in 1976. The Cryonics Institute has stated in the past it can offer lower rates than competing cryonics organizations because it is less reliant on member fees due to amount of donations, and it has been described as "conservatively managed".
The basic $28,000/$35,000 cryopreservation fees and contract with the Cryonics Institute does not include Standby or Transport. CI members living outside of Michigan must normally provide extra funding to pay for funeral director services and shipping. CI members wanting Standby and Transport from cryonics professionals can contract for additional payment to the Florida
-based company Suspended Animation, Inc
. CI has had clients from as far away as Australia. A quarter of current CI members are international.
The Immortalist Society
is a closely associated educational organization that publishes the magazine Long Life (formerly called The Immortalist) every two months. Long Life reports on activities of the Cryonics Institute along with other information related to cryonics
and life extension
and is available online for free. The previous newsletter of the Cryonics Society of Michigan was The Outlook.
bodies with the (antifreeze
) cryoprotectant
glycerol
, but in the year 2000 a cryobiologist
was hired: Yuri Pichugin, Ph.D.
who had done research on the Hippocampal Slice Cryopreservation
Project (HSCP). HSCP was a project focused on vitrification of rat
brain
hippocampal
slices which involved cooling to −130 degrees Celsius, rewarming and testing for viability
. The results of the HSPC were published in the April 2006 issue of the journal Cryobiology.
At the Cryonics Institute, Pichugin developed a vitrification mixture which is superior to glycerol in preventing ice
formation. This vitrification mixture was first applied to two dog
s of members who wanted their pet
s cryopreserved in 2004 and early 2005. The first human client received the vitrification mixture in the summer of 2005 using a new procedure in which the head was vitrified while still attached to the body, which was frozen without any cryoprotectant
. In February 2007 the Cryonics Institute abandoned its efforts to patent
its vitrification mixture and disclosed the formula to preclude others from preventing its use by CI. Dr. Pichugin resigned from the Cryonics Institute in December 2007.
In the summer of 2005, the Cryonics Institute obtained some custom-built computer-controlled cooling boxes, with LabVIEW
software
which would allow controlled cooling to a temperature as low as −192°C (−313°F). This equipment was necessary for effective application of vitrification, because cooling should be as fast as possible prior to the solidification temperature of the vitrification mixture (about −125°C), but cooling should be very slow below that temperature to reduce cracking due to thermal
stress
.
Instead of using dewar
s for storage, the Cryonics Institute cryopreserves bodies in large fiberglass
/resin
liquid-nitrogen-filled "thermos
bottles" which CI calls "cryostats". The first cryostats were hand-built in-house by Facilities Manager Andy Zawacki, but now the units are custom built by an external manufacturer. Costs for liquid nitrogen in the newest and most efficient cryostats was below $100 per human body per year in May 2006. Cost reduction is greatly assisted by the use of a 3,000 gallon bulk tank for liquid nitrogen, which is located behind the building. From this central point the liquid nitrogen gets distributed to the cryostats over a system of pipes.
to store ACS clients at CI. The ACS inspects CI yearly to ensure ACS quality standards are met. The extra funds charged to ACS members beyond CI minimums could be used for moving the bodies in the future if necessary, or other uses.
Cryonics
Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals who can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future. Cryopreservation of people or large animals is not reversible with current technology...
services. It is located in Clinton Township, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
.
As of 1 July 2011, CI had 938 members, 459 of whom had funding and contracts in place to be cryopreserved upon legal death. 105 of those funded members had contracts with Suspended Animation, Inc
Suspended Animation, Inc
Suspended Animation, Inc was founded in 2002 in Boynton Beach, FL. SA's purpose is to preserve bodies immediately after legal death to minimize the damages that occur before the body is cryopreserved...
. for standby and transport. 106 human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
s and 179 human tissue
Tissue (biology)
Tissue is a cellular organizational level intermediate between cells and a complete organism. A tissue is an ensemble of cells, not necessarily identical, but from the same origin, that together carry out a specific function. These are called tissues because of their identical functioning...
/DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
samples and 80 pet
Pet
A pet is a household animal kept for companionship and a person's enjoyment, as opposed to wild animals or to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals or sport animals, which are kept for economic or productive reasons. The most popular pets are noted for their loyal or playful...
s and 51 pet tissue/DNA samples are cryonically preserved in liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen is nitrogen in a liquid state at a very low temperature. It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. Liquid nitrogen is a colourless clear liquid with density of 0.807 g/mL at its boiling point and a dielectric constant of 1.4...
storage.
History
The Cryonics Institute was incorporated in the state of MichiganMichigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
on 4 April 1976 by four local residents: Richard C. Davis, Robert Ettinger
Robert Ettinger
Robert Chester Wilson Ettinger was an American academic, known as "the father of cryonics" because of the impact of his 1962 book The Prospect of Immortality...
, Mae A. Junod and Walter E. Runkel. Ettinger is widely known as "the father of cryonics" because his book The Prospect of Immortality is believed to have launched the cryonics movement. CI's first client was Ettinger's mother in 1977, and until the beginning of the 1990s, only one more client came along. This was Ettinger's first wife in 1987.
In March 1978, the Cryonics Institute purchased a building near Detroit. It served as its location until 1994, when the organization moved to the new Erfurt Runkel Building. It is named after John C Erfurt and Walter E. Runkel (which are now both in suspension there), and has a sprinkler system for additional security.
Ettinger was CI President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
for over 25 years until September 2003, when Ben Best
Ben Best
Ben Best is President and CEO of the Cryonics Institute, the world's second largest cryonics organization. Best is a well-known activist in cryonics and life extension advocacy...
became President/CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
and Ettinger became Vice-President. Ettinger retired as Vice-President on his 87th birthday in December 2005, but remained a Director until new Directors were elected in September 2006. For most of the 1990s, Best was President of the Cryonics Society of Canada (CSC) and was Editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of Canadian Cryonics News until the last issue was published in Spring of 2000. He is still a Director
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
of CSC.
In 2003, an article was published in Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
centering around the cryonics
Cryonics
Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals who can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future. Cryopreservation of people or large animals is not reversible with current technology...
organization Alcor Life Extension Foundation
Alcor Life Extension Foundation
The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, most often referred to as Alcor, is a Scottsdale, Arizona, USA-based nonprofit company that researches, advocates for and performs cryonics, the preservation of humans in liquid nitrogen after legal death, with hopes of restoring them to full health when new...
; the article contained accusations from a fired Alcor employee alleging Alcor had mishandled the cryopreservation of baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
star Ted Williams
Ted Williams
Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year Major League Baseball career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox...
. Despite the fact that the Cryonics Institute was not involved in the case, the media hype spurred the state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
to place CI under a "Cease and Desist" order for six months.
Finally, the Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
government decided to license
License
The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...
and regulate the Cryonics Institute as a cemetery
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
.
This is the reason why, since then, the perfusion of the bodies cannot be performed in the building itself anymore. In accordance to law, it must be done at the facilities of a funeral director.
Organization
| President | Ben Best |
| Vice-President | Alan Mole |
| Secretary | Joseph Kowalsky |
| Treasurer | Patrick Heller |
| Assistant Treasurer | S.R. Luyckx |
| Contract Officer | Constance Ettinger |
Policies
The Cryonics Institute has 12 DirectorsBoard of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
on its Board
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
, four of whom are elected by the members every year at the Annual General Meeting (usually held on the last Sunday of September). The Board then selects the Officers: President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
, Vice-President, Secretary
Secretary
A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
and Treasurer
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
. All members of the board are volunteers.
Unlike other cryonics
Cryonics
Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals who can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future. Cryopreservation of people or large animals is not reversible with current technology...
organizations, the Cryonics Institute only allows its members to arrange for whole body storage, not simply heads (neuropreservation
Neuropreservation
Neuropreservation is cryopreservation of the human brain with the intention of future resuscitation and regrowth of a healthy body around the brain. Usually the brain is left within the head for physical protection, so the whole head is cryopreserved...
). Anyone can become a Lifetime Member by paying $1,250 and filling out a membership form—or become a Yearly Member by paying a $75 Initiation fee plus $120 per year (or $35 per quarter). A Lifetime Member has the privilege of making arrangements for perfusion and storage in liquid nitrogen
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere...
for $28,000, whereas a Yearly Member must pay $35,000. CI has not raised the $28,000 price or $1,250 fee since the time of its inception in 1976. The Cryonics Institute has stated in the past it can offer lower rates than competing cryonics organizations because it is less reliant on member fees due to amount of donations, and it has been described as "conservatively managed".
The basic $28,000/$35,000 cryopreservation fees and contract with the Cryonics Institute does not include Standby or Transport. CI members living outside of Michigan must normally provide extra funding to pay for funeral director services and shipping. CI members wanting Standby and Transport from cryonics professionals can contract for additional payment to the Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
-based company Suspended Animation, Inc
Suspended Animation, Inc
Suspended Animation, Inc was founded in 2002 in Boynton Beach, FL. SA's purpose is to preserve bodies immediately after legal death to minimize the damages that occur before the body is cryopreserved...
. CI has had clients from as far away as Australia. A quarter of current CI members are international.
The Immortalist Society
Immortalist Society
The Immortalist Society is a charitable 501 organization devoted to research and education in the areas of cryonics and life extension. It was incorporated as a Michigan corporation by Robert Ettinger and five other local residents on June 27, 1967 as the Cryonics Society of Michigan, Inc....
is a closely associated educational organization that publishes the magazine Long Life (formerly called The Immortalist) every two months. Long Life reports on activities of the Cryonics Institute along with other information related to cryonics
Cryonics
Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals who can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future. Cryopreservation of people or large animals is not reversible with current technology...
and life extension
Life extension
Life extension science, also known as anti-aging medicine, experimental gerontology, and biomedical gerontology, is the study of slowing down or reversing the processes of aging to extend both the maximum and average lifespan...
and is available online for free. The previous newsletter of the Cryonics Society of Michigan was The Outlook.
Technical procedures
The Cryonics Institute has always provided all initial procedures, transport and storage internally, without contracting out to other providers. For most of its history, CI perfusedPerfusion
In physiology, perfusion is the process of nutritive delivery of arterial blood to a capillary bed in the biological tissue. The word is derived from the French verb "perfuser" meaning to "pour over or through."...
bodies with the (antifreeze
Antifreeze
Antifreeze is a freeze preventive used in internal combustion engines and other heat transfer applications, such as HVAC chillers and solar water heaters....
) cryoprotectant
Cryoprotectant
A cryoprotectant is a substance that is used to protect biological tissue from freezing damage . Arctic and Antarctic insects, fish, amphibians and reptiles create cryoprotectants in their bodies to minimize freezing damage during cold winter periods. Insects most often use sugars or polyols as...
glycerol
Glycerol
Glycerol is a simple polyol compound. It is a colorless, odorless, viscous liquid that is widely used in pharmaceutical formulations. Glycerol has three hydroxyl groups that are responsible for its solubility in water and its hygroscopic nature. The glycerol backbone is central to all lipids...
, but in the year 2000 a cryobiologist
Cryobiology
Cryobiology is the branch of biology that studies the effects of low temperatures on living things. The word cryobiology is derived from the Greek words "cryo" = cold, "bios" = life, and "logos" = science. In practice, cryobiology is the study of biological material or systems at temperatures below...
was hired: Yuri Pichugin, Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
who had done research on the Hippocampal Slice Cryopreservation
Cryopreservation
Cryopreservation is a process where cells or whole tissues are preserved by cooling to low sub-zero temperatures, such as 77 K or −196 °C . At these low temperatures, any biological activity, including the biochemical reactions that would lead to cell death, is effectively stopped...
Project (HSCP). HSCP was a project focused on vitrification of rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
hippocampal
Hippocampus
The hippocampus is a major component of the brains of humans and other vertebrates. It belongs to the limbic system and plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory and spatial navigation. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in...
slices which involved cooling to −130 degrees Celsius, rewarming and testing for viability
Viability
Viable or viability is the ability of a thing to maintain itself or recover its potentialities.Viable or viability may also refer to:...
. The results of the HSPC were published in the April 2006 issue of the journal Cryobiology.
At the Cryonics Institute, Pichugin developed a vitrification mixture which is superior to glycerol in preventing ice
Ice
Ice is water frozen into the solid state. Usually ice is the phase known as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on the Earth's surface. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions...
formation. This vitrification mixture was first applied to two dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
s of members who wanted their pet
Pet
A pet is a household animal kept for companionship and a person's enjoyment, as opposed to wild animals or to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals or sport animals, which are kept for economic or productive reasons. The most popular pets are noted for their loyal or playful...
s cryopreserved in 2004 and early 2005. The first human client received the vitrification mixture in the summer of 2005 using a new procedure in which the head was vitrified while still attached to the body, which was frozen without any cryoprotectant
Cryoprotectant
A cryoprotectant is a substance that is used to protect biological tissue from freezing damage . Arctic and Antarctic insects, fish, amphibians and reptiles create cryoprotectants in their bodies to minimize freezing damage during cold winter periods. Insects most often use sugars or polyols as...
. In February 2007 the Cryonics Institute abandoned its efforts to patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
its vitrification mixture and disclosed the formula to preclude others from preventing its use by CI. Dr. Pichugin resigned from the Cryonics Institute in December 2007.
In the summer of 2005, the Cryonics Institute obtained some custom-built computer-controlled cooling boxes, with LabVIEW
LabVIEW
LabVIEW is a system design platform and development environment for a visual programming language from National Instruments. LabVIEW provides engineers and scientists with the tools needed to create and deploy measurement and control systems.The graphical language is named "G"...
software
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
which would allow controlled cooling to a temperature as low as −192°C (−313°F). This equipment was necessary for effective application of vitrification, because cooling should be as fast as possible prior to the solidification temperature of the vitrification mixture (about −125°C), but cooling should be very slow below that temperature to reduce cracking due to thermal
Heat
In physics and thermodynamics, heat is energy transferred from one body, region, or thermodynamic system to another due to thermal contact or thermal radiation when the systems are at different temperatures. It is often described as one of the fundamental processes of energy transfer between...
stress
Stress (physics)
In continuum mechanics, stress is a measure of the internal forces acting within a deformable body. Quantitatively, it is a measure of the average force per unit area of a surface within the body on which internal forces act. These internal forces are a reaction to external forces applied on the body...
.
Instead of using dewar
Vacuum flask
A vacuum flask is an insulating storage vessel which keeps its contents hotter or cooler than its surroundings. Invented by Sir James Dewar in 1892, the vacuum flask consists of two flasks, placed one within the other and joined at the neck...
s for storage, the Cryonics Institute cryopreserves bodies in large fiberglass
Fiberglass
Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...
/resin
Resin
Resin in the most specific use of the term is a hydrocarbon secretion of many plants, particularly coniferous trees. Resins are valued for their chemical properties and associated uses, such as the production of varnishes, adhesives, and food glazing agents; as an important source of raw materials...
liquid-nitrogen-filled "thermos
Vacuum flask
A vacuum flask is an insulating storage vessel which keeps its contents hotter or cooler than its surroundings. Invented by Sir James Dewar in 1892, the vacuum flask consists of two flasks, placed one within the other and joined at the neck...
bottles" which CI calls "cryostats". The first cryostats were hand-built in-house by Facilities Manager Andy Zawacki, but now the units are custom built by an external manufacturer. Costs for liquid nitrogen in the newest and most efficient cryostats was below $100 per human body per year in May 2006. Cost reduction is greatly assisted by the use of a 3,000 gallon bulk tank for liquid nitrogen, which is located behind the building. From this central point the liquid nitrogen gets distributed to the cryostats over a system of pipes.
American Cryonics Society
While for much of its history the Cryonics Institute stored only its own clients, since the mid-1990s it has contracted with the American Cryonics SocietyAmerican Cryonics Society
The American Cryonics Society , also known as the Cryonics Society of America, is a member-run, California-based, 501 tax-exempt nonprofit organization that supports and promotes research and education into cryonics and cryobiology...
to store ACS clients at CI. The ACS inspects CI yearly to ensure ACS quality standards are met. The extra funds charged to ACS members beyond CI minimums could be used for moving the bodies in the future if necessary, or other uses.