RICHLAND – “Conversion of the WSU TRIGA Reactor from HEU to LEU Fuel” will be presented at 12:10 p.m. Friday, April 23 at WSU Tri-Cities in the West Building, Room 256, at 2710 University Drive.
This nuclear-related engineering professional development seminar will be led by Donald Wall. The seminar will also be available via videoconference from WSU Pullman in Murrow 53.
Admission to the seminar is free and open to the public.
The WSU Nuclear Radiation Center in Pullman operates a 1 megawatt TRIGA nuclear reactor. The WSU reactor was fueled with high enriched uranium (HEU) from 1976 until 2008. The U.S. Department of Energy has been tasked with reclaiming HEU fuel from civilian reactor facilities. The WSU reactor was converted from HEU to low enriched uranium (LEU) fueled core during 2008. This presentation will focus on the neutronic and thermal hydraulic analyses that were conducted to prepare for conversion to LEU fuel, and subsequent refueling, restart and qualification of the new core for both steady state and pulsing operation.
Wall earned his doctoral degree in nuclear chemistry at Florida State University and has worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and New Mexico State University. He has worked for Sandia National Laboratories on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) projectthe only operating deep geological nuclear waste repository in the world. He came to WSU in 2006 to serve as the director of the WSU Nuclear Radiation Center. Since 2006, WSU has converted the reactor from HEU to LEU fuel, shipped HEU spent nuclear fuel and nearly completed operating license renewal.
For more information on this and other nuclear engineering seminars, contact seminar coordinator Richard Stout, at rstout2b@charter.net or 509-528-7023.