University of Massachusetts Lowell (Radiation Laboratory)

The Radiation Laboratory at UMass Lowell serves the [http://www.uml.edu/Dept/Physics/graduate.htm Department of Applied Physics] among others. The laboratory contains a 1 MW pool-type nuclear research reactor (UMLRR) that has been operating since 1974, a 300 kCi Co-60 gamma ray source, and a 5.5 MV Van de Graff accelerator.

Reactor

First startup was January 2, 1975. [ [http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/rrdb/ Nuclear Research Reactors in the World ] ]

Facts

A budget for the reactor is not provided from the university or from the state; funding comes from grants and the United States Department of Energy. [Velella, Rob. "Nuclear Fallout" from "The UMass Lowell Connector" (student newspaper). November 20, 2001. p. 1] Initial cost and annual costs are reported to be $1.2 M and $0.3 M respectively. There are 2 staff and 6 operators. The maximum thermal flux is 1.4x10¹³ and fast flux is 9.2x10¹². It has a graphite and water reflector. It is a plate type with 18 plates per element. Cladding material is Aluminum alloy.cite web
last =Binney
first = S.E.
authorlink =
coauthors = S.R. Reese, and D.S. Pratt
title = University Research Reactors: Contributing to the National Scientific and Engineering Infrastructure from 1953 to 2000 and Beyond
work =
publisher = National Organization of Test, Research and Training Reactors
date = February 22 2000
url = http://www.trtr.org/Links/TRTR_February.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-04-07 ]

Availability of Information

Unlike the vast majority of university research reactors, the UMass research reactor has no official homepage. In the ABC 2005 Primetime special " [http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/LooseNukes/story?id=988778 Radioactive Roadtrip] ," it was reported that staff did not respond to emails and a tour could not be arranged but that an archived version of a virtual tour could be found online. This virtual tour, however, only contained 2 (about 300 pixel wide) small pictures and was pulled from the website in 2002. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/*//www.uml.edu/Dept/Physics/Rsc/RL/virtual.htm Virtual tour] ] This is in contrast to other reactors, many of which have large clear pictures of the reactor pool and blue glow of the core on their homepages that are more detailed than what was ever on the Radiation Laboratory site.

In the ABC report, it was also reported that an officer of the Lowell (city) police force was not aware that the reactor was still in operation at all. [ [http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/LooseNukes/story?id=988778 ABC News report] ]

Conversion to LEU

The UMass Lowell reactor has been one of the many research reactors to make the conversion from high-enriched Uranium to low-enriched Uranium as a part of anti-terrorism security measures. [http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/820521-ejbp9X/native/820521.pdf] The used HEU fuel was reportedly shipped to the Savannah River Site. The original shipping date was June 2002 but had been postponed many times. As of present day the shipments have been made and the reactor is in operation with LEU.

External links

* [http://www.uml.edu/Dept/Physics/graduate.htm Applied Physics Departmental Site]
* [http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/LooseNukes/story?id=988778 ABC's Radioactive Roadtrip Security Review]

References