< Back | Home

Brian Woods, a professor of nuclear engineering, is the principle investigator for a new reactor to be built at Oregon State. OSU received $6.6 million in grant money for the project.

OSU gets $6.6 million for "super hot," super efficient nuclear reactor

Reactor will be safer and potentially twice as efficient because it runs on hydrogen

By: Taryn Luna

Posted: 2/3/09

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted Oregon State University $6.6 million dollars and five years to design, build and test the safety of a one-quarter scaled version of a new type of helium gas-cooled nuclear reactor that operates at temperatures up to 1,000 degrees centigrade.

The reactor has the potential to be twice as energy-efficient as existing reactors and produce half as much radioactive waste.

"Our mission is to verify that the safety philosophy of the nuclear reactor works," said OSU's professor of nuclear engineering, Brian Woods. "This facility, I believe, will be the only one working on this type of reactor in the world,"

According to Woods, the reactor will be significantly safer than others of the past because it runs on helium instead of water. OSU's biggest safety issue is the main concern for most nuclear reactor facilities - a break or leak that leads to a loss of coolant in the nuclear vessel.

"No matter what accident we can think of, the core would never reach a temperature high enough to melt the fuel," Woods said.

OSU's job will be to verify the validity of that theory.

As the principle investigator on the project, Woods said he will be in charge of the $3.6 million dollar 600 square foot integral test facility being designed this year.

The construction of the facility is expected to begin next year at OSU's Radiation Center. After a year of becoming acquainted with the structure and safety protocols associated with the reactor in 2011, official testing will take place in 2012 and 2013.

Both a pebble bed reactor and a prismatic block reactor design will be tested to see which works better. The reactor will use ceramic type fuel instead of nuclear fuel, and no nuclear matter will be produced in the facility. In the foreseeable future, OSU expects to use the generation of high temperatures to reduce the desire for oil and produce less greenhouse gases.

"The reason why you want the really high temperature is to be able to cost effectively produce hydrogen," Woods said. Hydrogen fueled vehicles as an alternative to gas are becoming increasingly more prevalent.

Woods said OSU was given a grant to develop a scaled version of a light water nuclear reactor during the mid 1990's to the early 2000's called the APEX-1000. The "passive safety" reactor limited human intervention and was the first in the world to rely on gravity in the event of a leak.

"The work we did there helped build our reputation, so that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was comfortable asking us to work on this particular type of nuclear reactor," he said.

As partners in the project, the University of Michigan will be performing research using computer models and Texas A&M University will be performing small-scale laboratory experiments on their own campuses.

The grant will give OSU students the opportunity to graduate with hands-on experience at the forefront of nuclear technology under their belt. Woods said roughly a dozen graduate students and undergraduates will be analyzing data, writing reports, performing maintenance and running tests for the project.

Taryn Luna, senior reporter

news@dailybarometer.com, 737-2231