The story of our campus’ nuclear reactor first began with the Atoms for Peace Conference on December 8, 1953, in which President Dwight D. Eisenhower advocated for the use of nuclear power in reactors instead of weapons. At the time, the president of Penn State was Milton Eisenhower, the brother of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Consequently, once the project for a research reactor was approved by a board of trustees at Penn State, it received quick government approval as well. Construction began later in 1953, and the reactor was commissioned on February 22, 1955. The reactor received fuel in July of that year and became the first American university reactor to reach criticality in August.  

Initially a Materials Testing Reactor (MTR) only capable of operating at 100-200 kW of thermal output, Penn State’s reactor was upgraded to a TRIGA (Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics) reactor in the 1960s. This meant that the reactor could operate on a steady state thermal power of 1 MW and pulse up to 2000 MW. During this time period, the facility also received renovations to incorporate hot cells, for the handling of highly radioactive sources, and a gamma irradiation pool. Later, in the 1990s, the facility was improved with a digitalized control system, and the capability to manipulate the position of the core in the reactor pool. Recently in the past few years, further renovations were made to incorporate more learning spaces and provide more instruments for neutron scattering research.  

As a TRIGA reactor, the Penn State Breazeale Reactor and the Radiation Science and Engineering Center (RSEC) as a whole serve three main purposes. The first is to educate, by providing tours to the public and by providing the opportunity for students (like me) to complete the training to become a certified reactor operator. The second is research – resources at the facility are used to study the nano-scale structure of molecules and observe how different materials respond to radiation. The third is to produce radioactive isotopes for use in medicine and other research facilities.  

If you want to see the Radiation Science and Engineering Center first-hand, come visit us during the annual open house on parent’s weekend or schedule a group tour at the Radiation Science and Engineering Center’s website.