Shelbie Harris
News Editor
At forty, you’re considered over the hill, old and past your prime. However, this year Agnes, Idaho State University’s nuclear reactor, celebrates its fiftieth year at ISU, and could keep running without fuel for more than 200 years.
The AGN 201 Nuclear Reactor has been on the ISU campus since 1965 providing unique learning and research opportunities for students, faculty and staff.
“The reactor was located at a different university prior to being donated to [ISU] by the Atomic Energy Commission which existed from the end of the Second World War until 1974,” said Jay Kunze, ISU nuclear engineering professor and reactor administrator for the ISU Engineering Nuclear Reactor Office.
“It’s actually probably its sixtieth birthday, as it was more than likely built 10 years before we acquired it.”
Located in the basement of the Lillibridge Engineering Laboratory on the ISU campus, the AGN 201 Nuclear Reactor is one of three AGN 201 reactors still operating at college campuses in the United States, and one of five left in the world. There were once more than 40 similar reactors operating worldwide.
“This is a reactor that provides students with hands-on experience,” said Kunze. “Though it was intended as a training reactor, it has been used for research as well.”
The reactor works by taking a uranium ore nucleus and hitting it with a neutron, providing a chance to split apart into two separate atoms.
Some amount of neutrons that come off may contain energy, and if those neutrons can be used to fission more atoms into a steady chain, reaction power is created.
“It’s all about the neutron balance,” said Adam Mallicoat, ISU reactor operator, referring to producing nuclear energy. “If neutrons are going up, you’re gaining power; if neutrons are going down, you’re losing power, and if you’re at stable power level that means the reactor is going critical.”
According to Mallicoat, the next time you’re watching a movie and someone shouts “the reactor is going critical,” just know the reactor is at stable power level meaning it’s basically just on.
Unlike more powerful reactors, the AGN 201 Nuclear Reactor was designed solely for training purposes, therefore the power output is significantly lower than other reactors.
“The reactor produces five watts,” said Mallicoat. “But that’s thermal energy not electricity, about enough energy to run a little LED.”
Though it only produces a small amount of energy, the reactor is used for experimentation, live training, research as well as an educational tool for K-12 students and Boy Scout troops.
Mallicoat said the AGN 201 stands for Aerojet General Nucleonics with 201 being the model number.
This particular research reactor was the first of its kind to be mass produced.
Of the five remaining in the world, three are located in the United States, one in South Korea and another in Italy.
Interest in nuclear energy is on the rise. 300 people per year are certified as reactor operators nationwide, five of them undergraduates at ISU.
“It’s a rather limited thing to learn and get hands on experience,” said Mallicoat. “Our students get experience handling real uranium fuel and I know people with Ph.Ds in nuclear engineering and they have never done that.”
Mallicoat also emphasized how safe the reactor is.
Not only is the main reactor room on the other side of the shielding walls, but also the reactor is designed with a thermal fuse, meaning anytime it increases to an unsafe level of power the fuse will melt, separating the reactor into two halves permanently disabling the reactor.
“What I think is great about this facility is that because it is such a low risk facility we are able to bring people in very easily such as high school kids or even the general public,” said Mallicoat. “We use so little uranium that it is not a threat. The reactor uses very close to the minimum amount of material you could possible use to make a reactor.”
