Breazeale Facility Gets Additions, New Director

12-9-97
University Park, Pa. -- The new additions at Penn State's Radiation Science and Engineering Center facility, including those for the Breazeale Nuclear Reactor, will be overseen by a new director, C. Frederick Sears.

Sears, most recently an independent nuclear consultant specializing in management, operations, engineering and safety of nuclear reactors, has extensive experience in industrial reactors and in environmental engineering.

He is familiar with the Breazeale reactor because he served as shift supervisor and reactor operator from 1964 to 1968, although the facility has changed since then. In 1991, a digital control system was installed at the reactor. In the past year, numerous changes to enhance the abilities and utility of the reactor and the other facilities at the Radiation Science Center were implemented.

"We receive many requests to irradiate electronic materials and devices to alter their structure or to test their resistance to change by a variety of radiations, but we were limited in the size of objects that we could place near our reactor core," says Candace Davison, senior reactor operator. "By installing a larger diameter tube, we can now irradiate larger semiconductor wafers. We also installed a new system to do neutron radiography that enhances our imaging capabilities."

The Penn State Breazeale reactor is a TRIGA -- Training, Research and Isotope production reactor manufactured by General Atomics. It has a 1,000-kilowatt steady-state capacity and 2,000-megawatt pulsing capability. The reactor does not generate electricity but is used for a variety of analytic methods and to create radioactive isotopes.

The reactor personnel installed the new equipment with relative ease because of the general physical layout of the reactor pool. The reactor core moves to one end of the pool. A gate is installed, which seals off the reactor area, and operators drain water from the other area of the pool. This provides a dry, low-radiation area for installation.

Also reconfigured during the summer was the equipment for neutron activation analysis that researchers use in such diverse fields as anthropology and geology to determine the composition of a variety of materials.

Other areas of the Radiation Science and Engineering Center also received attention recently. The gamma irradiation laboratory, which uses cobalt as a gamma source in a wide variety of experiments, added a new irradiation device to allow more flexibility and a wider range of applications. Over the years, this facility has helped to create some of the new variations of African violets and poinsettias and has contributed to our understanding of genetic changes through fruit fly studies. The gamma irradiation laboratory can also sterilize materials that cannot be subjected to high temperatures.

One entirely new installation underway at the Radiation Center is the Thermal Hydraulic Test Loop. This three-story tower of glass pipes and devices could be installed anywhere, as it does not use any radioactive materials, but was installed at the center because it will allow researchers to simulate portions of a simplified boiling water reactor. The test loop is half the size of the hydraulic loop used in a boiling water reactor, but will allow valid simulations and tests to be run without an actual reactor.

"We have been busy over the past three years," says Davison, who is also research and education specialist. "Research uses of the reactor seem to be increasing at a steady rate, while the training of nuclear engineers and other students continues as always."

Sears' job is to oversee the entire range of research and teaching surrounding the center, as well as making certain that the center satisfies all operating and safety regulations.

He began his career with Penn State and then joined Combustion Engineering in 1968, first as chief test engineer. He was later named manager, NSSS test; assistant project manager; and finally, manager of product development. He was a captain in the U.S. Army Engineer Reactor Group, serving as assistant branch chief and qualifying as officer in charge for operation of the Army's reactor.

In 1980, Sears became director, nuclear engineering at Northeast Utilities, vice president, nuclear and environmental engineering, in 1983 and vice president, environmental in 1992. In 1994, he became a private consultant.

He received his B.S. in physics and M.S. in nuclear science and engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1962 and 1964, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from Penn State in 1969. Sears completed the executive management program at the Edison Electric Institute in 1987 and the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard School of Business in 1992.

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EDITORS: Ms. Davison may be reached at (814) 865-6351. Dr. Sears may be reached at (814) 865-6351.

Contacts:
A'ndrea Elyse Messer (814) 865-9481 (office) (814) 867-1774 (home) aem1@psu.edu
Vicki Fong (814) 865-9481 (office) (814) 238-1221 (home) vyf1@psu.edu