Chain reaction: DOE grant aids infrastructure, educational
upgrades for reactor
nly a few people can squeeze somewhat comfortably into the college’s
nuclear reactor control room; during research experiments, space on
the reactor’s beam-port floor is tight, too. And the basement
laboratories, where students do much of their learning, are dark, cramped
and date—with some modifications—to the Mechanical Engineering
Building’s birth in the 1920s.
While the reactor has operated for more than
40 years without much change of scenery, a recent Department of Energy
(DOE) grant, coupled with funds for the new Mechanical and Industrial
Engineering Building, will enable some long-awaited updates. “The
money came at the right time,” says Reactor Director Bob
Agasie, adding that the additional DOE funds mean the college can
install more robust systems that will last another 20 years.
Penn State University, the University of Illinois,
Purdue University and UW-Madison are sharing the $10 million grant,
awarded in September 2002 under the DOE Innovations in Nuclear Infrastructure
and Education initiative. The funds not only will facilitate reactor
upgrades, but also boost educational programs and foster collaborative-research
and reactor-sharing efforts at the schools.
In that vein, Agasie hired Michelle
Blanchard to lead new educational initiatives. And he is working
with an area high school teacher to support an upcoming series of weeklong
seminars for students from several schools. In May, students from Evansville
High School studied a week in the reactor as part of a program that
laid the groundwork for the proposed seminars.
Upgrades to the reactor’s infrastructure
already have started, too. During the summer, workers disconnected the
roof-mounted cooling tower and routed new pumps and heat exchangers
into the university’s chilled water system. And Agasie purchased
and installed new equipment for the reactor’s control panel and
for students to use in the nuclear instrumentation and reactor laboratory
courses.
Plans for the future include building a mezzanine
deck on the reactor’s north end, replacing the ventilation system,
upgrading the reactor-water cleanup and waste-disposal systems, and
remodeling the reactor’s auxiliary space. “Our offices,
the student labs, our sample-preparation and sample-irradiation rooms
will be built around the lab and will be more user-friendly,”
says Agasie.
In addition, there’ll be a large visitor
center that will be both a classroom and a gateway for reactor tours.
The center, which could serve as a virtual-tour station if the nation’s
security level demands it, will have a panoramic view into the reactor
control room.
When work on the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Building—a new facility housed within the existing building’s
historic façade—begins, the reactor’s auxiliary space
will move into the basement of the ME Building’s east wing while
a four-story tower is erected in place of the saw-tooth section. During
east-wing construction, reactor staff will move into the new tower’s
basement. Eventually, both locations will house reactor facilities,
which will form a U-shape around the reactor itself. Through-out the
project, says Agasie, the reactor will remain up and running and true
to its mission of research, education and outreach.
While overseeing the security and safety aspects
of all of this renovation will occupy lots of Agasie’s time, one
of his main priorities under the grant is to see the reactor through
its relicensing phase, which could take as long as two years. When it’s
complete, however, the license will extend another 20 years—another
reason for installing equipment that will last. “We had to have
the core infrastructure to at least
get the reactor licensed,” he says.
