Speaker: True W. Miller, MS, nuclear engineer, reactor supervisor and N.E. Radiation Laboratory coordinator, Purdue University
Introduced By: Rick Whitener
Attendance: NESC: 87, Zoom: 31
Guest(s): Michael Deall, Patricia Brewer
Scribe: John Peer
Editor: Bill Elliott
View a recording of today’s Zoom presentation at:
Today's Program 040124
Today’s presenter was True W Miller, Facility Director for the PUR-1 Nuclear Reactor. He received his bachelors in Nuclear Engineering in 2019 and his masters in 2021 and is now pursuing his PHD, all from Purdue.
The PUR-1 research reactor is in its 58th year. Originally designed by Lockheed in 1962, it is only a 10kw design (similar to a small campfire). It has gone through many upgrades. The most significant was the conversion to a full digital control through a $1.2M grant from the Department of Energy in 2017. It is the only fully digital controlled reactor in the USA.
True explained the basics of fission reactions and several design formulas for modern designs. A single fission reaction releases 100 million times the energy of a 2eV chemical reaction. The fission process of division creates two smaller atoms but, most importantly, 3 free neutrons. These free neutrons then create more fission for a chain reaction. Subcritical reactions stop naturally and supercritical reactions can expand exponentially. Control rods are used to moderate the supercritical reaction by capturing the excess neutrons to maintain a stable state for commercial use. Nuclear fuel is enriched to create sustainable reactions. Commercial levels are about 20%. By contrast, weapons grade is greater than 90%. Nuclear submarines also use greater than 90%.
The PUR-1 hosts 2000 visitors and 250 tours per year. The Scientech Club will be touring on Monday, May 13. PUR-1 also supports three lab courses and 120 students. PUR-1 is used for research in several areas such as neutron activation, creating isotopes, and cybersecurity studies (NRC grant). Since the full digitalization, all the reactor’s operating data has been recorded for future research.
However, the NRC doesn’t want experiments to be run that could modify the controls of PUR-1. Purdue has created a clone, a digital twin, which uses the PUR-1 data from a one way communication channel. Therefore, experiments can be run on the twin.
Vol. 105 No. 13 April 1, 2024 Page 2
Another area of interest is Small Modular Reactors (SMR’s). Purdue is working with Duke Energy on SMR’s in general and specifically one to run the West Lafayette campus. The main campus emits 500K tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year. The future of nuclear energy in the United States is a political problem, not a safety issue. Advanced reactor designs are essentially failsafe. Nuclear power is the safest source of energy in terms of deaths. Even solar is much worse in accidents, etc. The issue is political (Chernobyl, Fukushima, etc.) and lack of an educated public.
Thanks to True Miller for a very informative program.
True Miller
