{"id":65528,"date":"2019-11-23T00:46:52","date_gmt":"2019-11-23T00:46:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fort-lewis-college-research-lays-foundation-for-next-generation-of-nuclear-power\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T14:33:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T14:33:37","slug":"fort-lewis-college-research-lays-foundation-for-next-generation-of-nuclear-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fort-lewis-college-research-lays-foundation-for-next-generation-of-nuclear-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Lewis College research lays foundation for next generation of nuclear power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Billy
Billy Nollet, Fort Lewis College associate professor of physics and engineering, explains a loop used to purify and control liquid sodium, a molten metal, that can cool nuclear power plants. The loop was designed and built by an FLC undergraduate.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Fort Lewis College students are determining the best ways to monitor and work with liquid sodium, a silvery molten metal, which could help develop the next generation of nuclear power plants.<\/p>\n

Liquid sodium can be used to cool nuclear reactors and reduce the amount of time radioactive waste produced by a reactor is dangerous from tens of thousands of years to dozens of years \u2013 solving one of the biggest problems with nuclear power, said Billy Nollet, thermal hydrolysist and associate professor of physics and engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can solve the spent-fuel problem, then we potentially can tap into the cleanest and safest energy on record,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Public perception of nuclear power safety was hurt most recently in 2011 by an accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan, when a tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling systems for three reactors. No one died in the Fukushima accident.<\/p>\n

Despite criticism of nuclear power, Nollet said far fewer deaths happen during its production than during the generation of power through other means, such as coal.<\/p>\n

Nuclear power is also an appealing source of energy because it doesn\u2019t produce greenhouse gases and it can run regardless of the weather, unlike solar or wind power, he said. However, all the nuclear reactors in the United States rely on water-cooled systems, which lead to long-lasting radioactive waste.<\/p>\n

Liquid sodium, an alternative to a water-cooled system, has been used in the U.S. power plants before.<\/p>\n

But it has been decades since any liquid sodium-cooled reactors operated in the U.S., and the professionals who ran those plants have either retired or died. So research is needed to re-establish the expertise required to operate those plants, Nollet said.<\/p>\n

At Fort Lewis, students working with Nollet are focused on understanding the properties of liquid sodium. They do not work with nuclear materials.<\/p>\n

Liquid sodium is challenging to work with because it can\u2019t be seen or touched by an instrument while it is moving through systems, Nollet said.<\/p>\n

At Nollet\u2019s Thermal Hydraulics Lab, students are, for example, learning how to measure how fast the metal moves and understanding its corrosive properties. The system they work with has high electrical voltage, high temperature and high volatility, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stakes are real, in terms of the real-world work experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Students
Students learn computer coding as part of their research into nuclear coolant technology with Fort Lewis College associate professor of physics and engineering Billy Nollet.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

To better understand liquid sodium and its corrosive properties, FLC students designed a system to control the level of oxygen in the metal because oxygen is the biggest contributor to corrosion.<\/p>\n

Students have also designed a pump that employs spinning magnets to create alternating magnetic fields to pull the liquid sodium through a duct, Nollet said.<\/p>\n

The work has drawn investment from the Department of Energy\u2019s Office of Nuclear Energy and the department\u2019s Nuclear Energy University Program, according to FLC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows a federal interest and the American people as a stakeholder in the quality of education that Fort Lewis provides,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Before Nollet started his program in 2013, it was unheard of for undergraduate students to participate in this type of work, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that our undergrads, and undergrads in general, are much more capable than people think,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

About 30 students have worked with Nollet since he opened the lab. About five students have gone on to pursue doctoral degrees at established research schools, such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His students have also gone to work for the Argonne National Laboratory<\/a>, a science and engineering research center run by the Department of Energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t produce enough students to keep up with the demand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

FLC engineering junior Wiley Kirks joined Nollet\u2019s lab in recent weeks and expects the work experience will help him decide between graduate school and entering the workforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is kind of a taste of grad school,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While the future of nuclear energy in the U.S. is uncertain, the skills that Nollet\u2019s students gain can be applied to many different industries, such as solar energy and rocket propulsion, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThermal hydraulics is an extremely coveted field,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coolant technology helps reduce radioactive waste problem<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1098,132,13,28,357,445],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-65528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-energy","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-manufacturing-and-engineering","tag-newsletter-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91620,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65528\/revisions\/91620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65528"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=65528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}