U of I looking to bring nuclear microreactor back to campus

by: Amanda Brennan, Bradley Zimmerman

Posted: Feb 21, 2023 / 06:02 PM CST

Updated: Feb 21, 2023 / 06:55 PM CST

URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois is in the process of bringing nuclear energy back to campus for the first time in 25 years.

Through the Department of Nuclear, Plasma & Radiological Engineering, the university is applying for a license to construct and operate a new microreactor on campus for research purposes. A microreactor is a small reactor that utilizes a fission chain reaction to produce one to 20 megawatts of heat energy.

Researchers want to change the way we think about nuclear power and they hope adding a microreactor can help with that.

It would be underground and near the Abbott Power Plant on the west side of the school near the railroad tracks in Champaign.

The equipment aims to advance research, prepare students for the future, and save energy on campus at the same time.

Caleb Brooks, an associate professor and the project’s lead, said universities across the country have had small reactors before, but this new technology is different. Steam from the power plant will impact how it works.

“From that, we can heat campus, we can generate electricity, we also have looked at demonstrating the ability to produce hydrogen for clean transportation and clean steel and de-carbonizing other sectors as well,” Brooks said.

The university previously operated one from 1960 to 1998. Operating this reactor, the university said, enabled faculty and professionals to make discoveries that contributed to nuclear research and also trained nuclear engineering students on how to operate larger reactors when they entered the industry.

The U of I reactor was just the second to be built on a university campus. In the decades since, 24 other universities built their own research reactors, but none of them are less than 30 years old.

The University’s Department of Nuclear, Plasma & Radiological Engineering hopes to take advantage of a renaissance in nuclear energy since 2010, including new microreactor technology, to continue research and education on nuclear energy.

“We have to re-think the way we operate them, the way we deploy them, the way that we build them, the way that we instrument them,” Brooks said. “All these different aspects, the way that we utilize the power off of them. So under that research mission, we’re really focused on all of the critical enabling and synergistic technologies around the reactor.”

Brooks hopes this new reactor could give students the opportunity to learn more about where the future of nuclear is headed. He’s also aiming to increase the public’s trust in it.

The microreactor team is hosting regular meetings for everyone so you can ask your questions. They’re on the third Tuesday of every month at 10 a.m. The next one is on March 21st at the Talbot Laboratory. For the full public meetings schedule, click here.