The University of Florida Training Reactor (UFTR), commissioned in 1959, is a 100 kW modified Argonaut-type reactor at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

. It is a light water and graphite moderated, graphite reflected, light water cooled reactor designed and used primarily for training and nuclear research related activities. The reactor is licensed by the

Nuclear Regulatory Commission The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy. Established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the NRC began operat ...

and is the only research reactor in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. The UFTR is integral to the Nuclear Engineering Program (NEP) at the University of Florida and it offers the ability for students to learn the fundamentals of nuclear operation, neutron detection, and

reactor physics Nuclear reactor physics is the field of physics that studies and deals with the applied study and engineering applications of chain reaction to induce a controlled rate of fission in a nuclear reactor for the production of energy.van Dam, H., ...

. The UFTR also offers unique training opportunities for students enrolled at other educational institutions as well as future

reactor operator A reactor operator (or nuclear reactor operator) is an individual at a nuclear power plant who is responsible for directly controlling a nuclear reactor from a control panel and is the only individual at a nuclear power plant who can directly alte ...

s or technical experts at commercial nuclear plants since it enables the ability to perform and analyze reactor manipulations not often performed at commercial facilities. Courses offered using the UFTR include a Radiation Detection Lab, Neutronics Lab, Reactor Experiments Lab, and Reactor Operations Lab.

History

The UFT
resumed operations
in April, 2015 after a multi-year facility refurbishment to upgrade the physical infrastructure, including new low enrichment uranium (LEU) fuel, replacement of the HVAC systems, upgraded security systems, and various instrumentation and control (I&C) system upgrades. The reactor's power level is regulated by

cadmium Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of ...

blades that act as mechanical shim (analogous to control rods in a

pressurized water reactor A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water reactor, light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan and Canada). In a PWR, the primary ...

). Nominal maximum thermal flux density for the UFTR is 1.8E12 neutrons/cm²·s. UF_NuclearSciencesBuilding

Services

Services offered to the UF community and external academic, government and corporate users include: *

Neutron Activation Analysis Neutron activation analysis (NAA) is the nuclear process used for determining the concentrations of elements in many materials. NAA allows discrete sampling of elements as it disregards the chemical form of a sample, and focuses solely on atomic ...

(NAA) * Neutron Irradiation * Radiation Effects Testing on Materials * Research Partnerships * Training The University of Florida NEP has seven primary faculty, five affiliated faculty, 100 enrolled undergraduate majors, and 40 masters and doctoral students. The departmental facilities include, in addition to the UFTR, a uranium metal-fueled sub-critical facility, a high-output fusion neutron generator irradiation laboratory, 1 and 10 curie Plutonium-Beryllium (Pu-Be) neutron sources, a radiochemistry laboratory with hot-cell and decontamination capabilities, a neutron activation analysis laboratory, and multi-user nuclear instrumentation laboratory work stations.

References

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External links

Nuclear Engineering Program WebsiteUF Neutronics Lab
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uf Training Reactor University of Florida 1959 establishments in Florida Argonaut class reactor