nuclear engineering and radiation health physics at oregon state university

8/3/2019 Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics at Oregon State University

1/27

Nuclear Engineering andRadiation Health Physics

at Oregon State University

Kathryn Higley, PhD, CHP

Professor, Acting Department Head

Preface


2/27


3/27

Oregon
http://208.56.96.178/cgi-bin/photo/imageSearch.cgi?search=Willamette%20Valley&img=0&currentOrder=http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/wchan/photo/il14.jpghttp://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/wchan/photo/ig05.jpg


4/27

Background

Long tradition of nuclear relatedresearch: Nuclear Engineering at OSU for 50 years

TRIGA reactor at OSU for ~ 40 yearsResearch spans decades & disciplines: Fundamental nuclear science

Nuclear power plant design

Radiation safety

Medical applications

Environmental protection

National security and defense


5/27

A Brief History of the RadiationCenter and the Department

Nuclear Engineering graduateprogram established in 1959 (inMechanical Engineering)

Included theAGN-201

(A smalltraining

reactor) The first

nuclearreactor in

Oregon.


6/27

A Brief History, continued

OSU among the firstin nation to offerundergraduatecurriculum in nuclear

engineering


7/27

NERHP and the RC

RC provides to NERHP and others: Specialized facilities for research Instructional faculty Radiation safety support Emergency response support & training

NERHP: Academic entity within Engineering Focus on teaching and research

Emergency response support to Oregonand elsewhere

Complementary & symbiotic - butdistinct missions and objectives


8/27

NERHP Research

Generates nearly ~50% of ouroperating budget through fundedresearch and other sources from

agencies such as: United Nations (IAEA)

US NRC

US DOE

NASA National Laboratories (LLNL, INL, PNNL)

University Consortia

Private Industry


9/27

RC Research & Support

Service organizationNeutron provider for educationalinstitutions and others: Geochronology

Archaeology Radioecology Others fundamental science support

DHSPNNL

US NRCUS DOEOregon Emergency Response SupportOregon Nuclear Instrumentation

Calibration


10/27

NE/RHP at OSU

Today One of 8 US institutions to offer

complete suite of B.S., M.S., and

Ph.D. degrees in both NuclearEngineering & Radiation HealthPhysics

Added Medical Physics Graduate

Program, 2009 Plan to add Radiochemistry option


11/27

Facilities

1.1 MWth TRIGAReactorAdvanced ThermalHydraulic Testing

Laboratory90Sr-90Y irradiatorSubcritical assemblyRadiochemistry labs

RadioecologyGreenhouseand more..


12/27

RadiationHealthPhysics

NuclearEngineering

MedicalPhysics

Organizational StructureNuclear Engineering & Radiation HealthPhysics

Radio-chemistr

y


13/27

Thematic & Research Areas

Nuclear EngineeringThermal Hydraulics /Computational Fluid DynamicsReactor/Computational PhysicsRadiochemistry of actinides &lanthanidesTherapeutic Radiologic Physics

Nuclear Instrumentation DesignEnvironmental Health PhysicsRadioecology


14/27

Radiation Center Today

Supports research & development in nuclearscience and engineering, radiation protection, andrelated disciplines.

Provides a place for use and handling ofradioisotopes and other sources of ionizing

radiation.

Research projects include:

Neutron activation analysis

Neutron depth profiling for hydrogen storage

Medical isotope development and production Geological age dating (fission track and Ar/Ar

age dating)

Neutron radiography

Radiation sterilization

Radiation dosimeter testing

Steve Reese,RC Director


15/27

Radiation Detector Design

New designs in electronics are applied tolong standing issues in radiation detection.

A 3rd generation triple-layer phoswichdetector employs digital signal processing.

This innovative approach uses a devotedalgorithm for simultaneous detection ofgamma and beta particles.

Applications for beta spectroscopy anddosimetry arise in a variety of situations

ranging from medical to national security.

0 50 100 150 200 2500

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

Energy (a.u.)

Counts

(a)

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 4000

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Energy (a.u.)

Counts

(b)

AbiFarsoniDavidHamby


16/27

Radiochemistry

Evaluate the chemistry of actinides andlanthanides with man-made and naturallyoccurring ligands;

Examine redox chemistry of actinides and kineticsand thermodynamics of radiochemical processes.

Develop radioanalytical and separation methodsfor applications in waste processing,radiochemical sensors, medical imaging and

radiotherapy.

Study speciation and mobility of radionuclides innatural biogeochemical systems.

AlenaPaulenova


17/27

ComputationalMethods/Reactor Physics

Advanced methods for neutral and chargedparticle transport,

Application of simulation tools for analysis ofsystems containing radiation or radioactivematerials.

Ongoing work:

Advanced deterministic transport algorithms forradiation detector simulation,

Deterministic radiation dose calculations for cancertreatment,

3-D simulations of radiation through stochasticmixtures,

Hybrid Monte Carlo/deterministic transport forreactor physics and thermal radiative transfer, and

Design of reactor cores for research reactors and

small, innovative commercial power reactors.

Todd Palmer


18/27

Thermal Hydraulics

OSUs research is instrumental in designand licensing of new reactors.

U.S. NRC and U.S. DOE chose OSU forthermal hydraulic testing of nuclear powerplant designs.

Qiao WuBrian WoodsJose Reyes

Designed, constructed, and operate large-scale, state-of the- art, integral thermalhydraulic test facilities for reactor safetytests.

OSU an integral part of the certificationtesting program for the Westinghouse

AP600 and AP1000, which received NRCdesign approval.

Additional facilities for testing

performance of high temperature gasreactors will come online in 2010.

APEX

MASLWR

THTF

VHTGR


19/27

Nuclear Engineering Issues

Nuclear Energy Policy

Advanced Reactor Systems

Space Energy Systems Isotope alternatives

Fission reactorsAndy KleinJack Higginbotha


20/27

Environmental HealthPhysics / Radioecology

Research on the migration ofradionuclides throughenvironmental media,

Statistical approaches toremediating contaminatedwaste sites, and

Application of scaling functions

to predict radionuclide uptakein the biosphere.

Kathryn Higle

y= 6.3669x-0.2414

R2 = 0.9504

y = 0.676x-0.3397

R2

= 0.8931

y= 0.6443x-0.1602

R2 = 0.675

y= 0.2842x-0.1133

R2

= 0.8754

y = 1801.1x-0.3389

R2 = 0.9814

0

1

10

100

1000

10000

100000

0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1

Plant drymass, kg

Traceelements,ppm

K

Zn

Rb

Co

La


21/27

TherapeuticRadiologic Physics

Application of radiationdose calculations for

cancer treatmentDevelopment andtesting of in vivodosimetry for clinical

applications(bracytherapy)

Image guided

radiotherapy

Camille Lodwiok


22/27

Students


23/27

Educational Facilities

Enhanced classrooms Laboratories (instrumentation,

radiochemistry, other) Library


24/27

Distance Education (e-Campus)

Web streaming

With delay

Archived for retrieval


25/27

The student population has grown consistently over thelast decade, from ~80 in 1997 to more than 270 today.

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Student Enrollment 1997 through 2009

E-campus

MP Grad

RHP Grad

NE Grad


26/27

For information, please contact:Kathryn A. Higley, PhD, CHP

ProfessorActing HeadDept. of Nuclear Engineering & Radiation Health PhysicsOregon State UniversityCorvallis, Oregon 97331541.737.0675 (work)

541.737.0480 (fax)[email protected]

Steve ReeseDirectorRadiation Center

Oregon State UniversityCorvallis, Oregon 97331541-737-2341 (work)541.737.0480 (fax)[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


27/27

We look

forward to ourfuturecollaboration!

nuclear engineering and radiation health physics at oregon state university

Documents