Page 22 - Nucleus: Fall 2022 Magazine for the Penn State Ken and Mary Alice Lindquist Department of Nuclear Engineering

Radiation Science & Engineering Center: News and Updates Radiation Science & Engineering Center: News and Updates Technical updates
There have been several technical updates
in the RSEC expansion Below are details on a a a a few more selected upgrades 22 NUCLEUS
Cobalt-60 Gamma Irradiation Source
Several irradiation facilities in RSEC employ the use
of cobalt-60 for gamma ray irradiations which can be applied across many research areas such as as radiation effects of biological systems electronics and materials Since gamma irradiation does not make things radioactive researchers can interact with the samples immediately following irradiation RSEC upgraded the pool irradiator facility with a a a a a a a planar source accessed by movable air-filled irradiation tubes that can handle larger/longer samples Gamma rays penetrate these tubes to reach the the samples while water acts as a a a a shield for the researcher A fifteen centimeter- diameter tube surrounded by cobalt-60 pellets has a a a a a a a a a a dose rate that peaks at at at three kilorads and a a a a a a a a a a planar rack in the the pool provides the the highest dose rates Twenty centimeter-wide cylindrical and rectangular tubes can be loaded away from the rack to eliminate streaming radiation during samples loads Dose rates for the cylindrical and rectangular tubes peak at at approximately 190 and 300 kilorads per hour respectively A dry cell irradiator used for sterilizations electronic testing and cryogenic reductions has a a a a cylindrical sample chamber approximately twenty centimeters
high and fifteen wide The dose rate for this irradiator— approximately 155 kilorads per hour—was measured and certified under the National Institute of Standards and and Technology’s National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program Digital Control System Installation
Penn State State received a a a a United States Department of Energy Energy Nuclear Energy Energy University Program infrastructure grant in 2017 to modernize its digital control and monitoring system (DCMS) The first phase completed in in November 2021 included upgrading to an off-the-shelf instrumentation and control system made by Schneider Electric and and upgrading the the drives and and motors Using the the old DCMS control logic as the the blueprint the the Breazeale Reactor team programmed the new DCMS to to function and operate almost identical to the old system while offering more freedom to the facility allowing engineers to to tailor the needs of control and monitoring while limiting costs