Nuclear Engineering Education at the RPI Walthousen Reactor Critical Facility

The Walthousen Reactor Critical Facility (RCF) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) is a low power (100 W) research reactor, used primarily for education. Commissioned in 1956, the facility was originally built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) as an experimental facility for designing the prototype of the Army Package Power Reactor. In 1963 ALCO donated the reactor to RPI, where it has been in use as a research, education, and training reactor for over 50 years. It is currently fueled with SPERT (F-1) fuel pins having 4.81 wt% enriched UO2 pellets, similar to most commercial light water reactors except the fuel cladding is made of stainless steel and the fuel pins have an active length of 36 inches. The RCF is used as a tool in education through a combination of experiments, operations training, and classroom instruction. Two examples of this are the Critical Reactor Laboratory and training students for their Senior Reactor Operator licenses. Critical Reactor Laboratory is a senior level undergraduate class in which the students get valuable hands-on experience operating the RCF and performing experiments with it. During the class, some of the labs students will perform include an approach to critical, power calibration, measurements of fuel pin worth, control rod worth, and moderator temperature coefficient of reactivity. Students can also train to get their NRC Senior Reactor Operator license, which includes receiving extensive operational experience as well as training in surveillances, regulations, and maintenance. Several Masters theses and a few PhD theses have been completed as a result of research conducted at the facility as well. This paper will detail the various ways the reactor is and has been used in education, and some potential new applications for education, including online and distance learning, nonproliferation, safeguards, and detection.