HT3R

The High-Temperature Teaching and Test Reactor Energy Research Facility (nicknamed HT³R, or "heater") is a proposed $457 million multi-purpose energy research facility that is based on Generation IV (GEN-IV) reactor technologies and is to be located in Andrews County, Texas. Research planned for the facility's laboratories will cover issues relevant to: energy production (Hydrogen production, Electricity, and Fischer Tropsch-type fuels), power generation efficiency (Brayton cycle vs Rankine cycle), nuclear proliferation, nuclear waste transmutation, new nuclear fuel cycles, neutron research for basic science (such as is performed at the NIST center for neutron research (NCNR)), water purification with waste heat from the reactor, and shortages of qualified nuclear engineers. General Atomics worked with UTPB on the Pre-Conceptual Design for the facility, but project is now entering a new phase that is defined by a close working relationship with the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The project is a joint venture between several counties, businesses, and colleges:

*Andrews County
*Ector County
* Midland County
*University of Texas of the Permian Basin

Other key collaborators in the project are:

*University of Texas System
*University of Texas at Arlington
*University of Texas at Austin
*University of Texas at Dallas
*University of Texas at El Paso

In addition to the eventual design of the HT3R facility, the project office is also working on other relevant nuclear reactor technologies and high-temperature processes, examining the technical issues required for licensure of GEN-IV reactors, and expanding scholarship and internship programs for the students at UTPB.

It is hoped that the facility can be completed by no later than 2015 assuming that timely funding is available. According to project Director it will be a unique research, teaching, and test facility that will help train a new generation of scientists and engineers in safe operation of new nuclear technologies that can generate electricity at efficiencies above 50%, generate synthetic hydrocarbon and hydrogen fuels, plus desalinate brackish subterranean waters.

External links

* [http://www.utpb.edu/research-grants/ht3r/ HT3R Project Website]
* [http://www.lanl.gov Los Alamos National Laboratory]
* [http://www.fuelingthefuture.tv/HTTRNuclear/tabid/58/Default.aspx Fueling the Future's overview of the project]
* [http://www.andrewsedc.com/current.html Andrews Economic Development]