Changing the fuel pin configuration in the Institute’s low-power fission reactor.

By John Backman

When the head of the Nuclear Energy Institute told Rensselaer students that the nation is “ripe for a renaissance of the nuclear power industry,” he was speaking at a national conference organized and run entirely by Rensselaer students belonging to the student chapter of the American Nuclear Society.

It was only appropriate, considering that Rensselaer’s nuclear engineering program will graduate more students this year (for the third year in a row) than any other university in the United States. Retired Admiral Frank Bowman, who headed the Navy’s nuclear power program, called Rensselaer a “vital part of our nation’s nuclear infrastructure,” because the Institute trains the people who will run the country’s 103 commercial reactors — and, in doing so, will help produce 20 percent of future energy requirements.

The meeting gave students a chance to meet a commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and network with industry and government leaders. By the time they are ready for the job market, most of these students have not just a degree but contacts — and most get more than one offer.

Students at the Controls

There is a good reason for that. According to Bowman, American corporations and consortiums currently have 19 new nuclear power plants on the drawing board. At the same time, an aging workforce is driving tremendous demand for highly trained nuclear engineers.

With one of only nine undergraduate programs in the country, Rensselaer offers several programs and resources, both on and off campus, that uniquely equip students for the field. “We have a component in Malta Commons for naval personnel who are instructors at the nuclear Navy prototype facility,” explained Don Steiner, research professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering (MANE) and director of the Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics (NEEP) program.

“In the three years that students are stationed up here, they can earn a baccalaureate degree from Rensselaer — in nuclear engineering, engineering physics, or both,” added Michael Z. Podowski, academic director of the Malta Program. “Many will go on after their tour of duty to lucrative jobs in industry.”

The program also offers some exceptional hands-on opportunities that students can get at no other American university. At the Walthousen lab, undergraduates run a functional, low-power fission reactor, which is set up and runs exactly like a commercial reactor. Unlike the reactors at other universities — which cost so much to run that the institutions have to sell time on them to large companies — this equipment is completely accessible, and safe, for students to use.

Rensselaer also owns an electron linear accelerator (LINAC), used to study the effects of different types of radiation on both organic and inorganic materials. Even first-year students can use the LINAC for undergraduate research; one junior undergrad received attribution on a paper in an international research journal as a result of his collaborative work.

According to Podowski, radiation-technology research using LINAC is one of the major departmental research thrusts in nuclear engineering; the others include advanced power reactor systems and biomedical applications of radiation.

Leading-Edge Research and Education

Of course, such unique facilities also attract an exceptional caliber of faculty. As director of the Center for Multiphase Research, Podowski heads a dynamic group of scientists and engineers dedicated to exploring and exploiting new developments in multiphase flow, with an eye to its transfer to industry.

Podowski is extremely optimistic about the recent resurgence of interest in nuclear power, citing a long-term Generation IV Reactor Initiative established by the Department of Energy (DOE), as well as the recent industrial action aimed at ordering new power reactors in the near future. He has received two DOE Generation IV grants and one NRC grant (totaling nearly $800,000) to develop advanced modeling and simulation capabilities for design and safety analysis of next-generation reactors. Anticipated future extensions of this program include very high-temperature gas-cooled reactors for hydrogen generation, and reactor physics and materials aspects of advanced reactors.

In the face of a strong nuclear marketplace, MANE continues to expand. The most recent department hire — Li (Emily) Liu, who comes to Rensselaer from MIT — has engaged in extensive research in both the NIST Center for Neutron Research and the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source of Argonne National Lab. Assuming the position of assistant professor, Liu said she was attracted to the program by its reputation, its people, and Rensselaer’s particle accelerator, which she will use to generate neutrons. “The engineering program here is one of the best,” she noted. “Also, they didn’t have a specific person doing neutron scattering. So it’s a good fit for me and for them.”

With enthusiastic faculty, advanced research projects, and the sophisticated tools required to carry them out, it is hardly surprising that MANE produces exceptional nuclear engineers. As Steiner commented, “Their performance is quite extraordinary, year after year. Our faculty members are very proud of their students’ accomplishments. These young people inspire a great deal of confidence that the future of nuclear energy is in capable hands.”

Photographs by RPI/Kris Qua
Originally published in Rensselaer Engineering News, Fall 2006