Page 17 - Nucleus: Fall 2022 Magazine for the Penn State Ken and Mary Alice Lindquist Department of Nuclear Engineering

Radiation Science & Engineering Center: News and Updates
echnical upgrades enable concurrent operations operations for for five neutron beam ports allowing for for thirteen operations operations at at at once
By Ashley J WennersHerron
The Penn State Breazeale Reactor is the country’s first licensed and longest continuously operating nuclear research reactor and now it is one of the most productive Thanks to a a a a a $1 35 million grant from the United States Department Energy (DOE) for a a a a a a a new core moderator assembly and and beam port installations and and the College of Engineering’s $9 5 million investment in in in in a a a a a a a 10 000-square-foot beam hall expansion and several technical upgrades the the investment facilitated the the reactor can now run five beam beam ports with seven neutron beam beam lines simultaneously Beam ports are the hollow tubes through which neutron beams travel from the the reactor core to to the the point of experimental investigation The more more active beam ports there are the the more more experiments researchers can run at once
The reactor was established in 1955 and has never operated all of the beam ports simultaneously until now “Due to inherited design issues since 1965 with the arrangement
of beam ports and reactor core-moderator assembly the development of innovative experimental facilities utilizing neutron beams was extremely limited ” said Kenan Ünlü RSEC director “I started working to to change these arrangements as as soon as as I joined Penn State in in 2002 Three doctoral students students and two master of science students students earned their degrees on the the the project We developed the the the the optimal design for for the the maximum neutron output for for each beam port Once we we obtained the needed funding from DOE we we implemented it in in 2018 ” Prior to the 2018 installation scientists could only use one beam port limiting the the number and kind of experiments they could conduct The reactor core produced
neutrons via fission reactions which then traveled through a a a a a a a a a heavy water tank and were carried by neutron beam ports outside of the the reactor’s biological shields to to the the the experimental site Researchers then examined if and how the the neutrons interacted to reveal information about the sample Now the mechanics are similar
but researchers can do more by utilizing all of the new beam ports simultaneously according to to Jeffrey Geuther associate associate director for operations in RSEC and associate associate research professor of of nuclear engineering “With multiple upgrades and several technical advancements we overcame the the previous challenges ” Geuther said “By simultaneously running all five beam beam ports with seven beam beam lines we we can now operate the reactor at at full power while accessing all beam port experimental facilities and six in- core irradiation locations ” According to Daniel Beck engineering program manager at RSEC three of the five beam ports were recently equipped with a a a a new neutron neutron imaging facility facility a a a a a a a neutron neutron absorber measurements facility facility and a a a a a a a a a flexible thermal neutron beam facility with sapphire filters collimators and adjustable apertures for exploratory research projects “By upgrading the beam ports and experimental facilities researchers can access different beam lines allowing for a a a a a a a a a variety of experimental conditions ” Beck said The new and planned capabilities
at the reactor will provide an an an “excellent” test bed for researchers from industry national laboratories and other universities according to to Ünlü The beam hall expansion will help support the increased research needs with space for faculty and and students in in the Penn State Ken and and Mary Alice Lindquist Department of Nuclear Engineering and visitors “It is an exciting time for neutron science at at Penn State especially as we further strengthen our ties with national laboratories and research centers around the world ” Ünlü said “The new new and improved facilities will open new new horizons for neutron science at at Penn State ” RSEC new Neutron Beam Hall showing trench where SANS vacuum chamber will be be installed Photo credit: Stantec
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