WSU nuclear program leaders look to expand education and research

PULLMAN — About 65 years since its reactor became active, staff at Washington State University’s Nuclear Science Center say they’re working to ramp up capacity for research and workforce training in the coming years.

For decades, the facility has provided radioisotopes for various research facilities and national laboratories, as well as partnering with Idaho National Laboratory to be the sole provider of radioisotopes used for first responder field training.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, radioisotopes are the unstable form of an element that emit radiation to transform into a more stable form.

The center also trains students, many of whom are undergraduates, to earn their reactor operator licenses. That’s unique, said Corey Hines, the center’s director. Many people don’t start in the nuclear workforce until they’re at the graduate level.

“What we’re hearing from the industry is we need people, way earlier on, to get interested in this,” he said. “We need people that are health physicists, that are radio chemists, that are welders, that are technicians.”

Last year, eight students earned their reactor operator license, Hines said, and he expects over 10 this year. But that’s not all the university has planned.

According to industry estimates, around 300,000 people will be needed to meet nuclear workforce needs by 2050, said Kim Christen, vice president for research at WSU. In response, she said, WSU plans to expand its available courses.

“We’re developing a series of degrees, certificates, and micro-credentials,” she said.

Those additional courses would be for people getting four-year degrees, she said, as well as expanding training for people who are already in the workforce.

That would include hybrid options for students across the state, Christen said. It could also include opportunities with a hot cell facility that is currently under construction.

Hot cells, which get their name from the “hotness” of radiation emitted, are containment chambers that allow scientists to safely work with highly radioactive material.

Staff say those hot cells will increase the center’s research and training capacity, and allow for the production of medical isotopes, which are used for detection and treatment of cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

Currently, WSU sends irradiated material from its reactor to outside facilities for research. The addition of hot cells would expand in-house options.

“(Irradiated material) can come out of the (reactor) pool, it can go into the hot cell, the researcher can do their research,” Christen said. “We can get those results out the door that day to the customer, which could be the US government, it could be a power electricity company, it could be a fusion company.”

Construction for phase one of the project, which entails building a structure that can hold three 300,000-pound hot cells, began last summer thanks to a $7.6 million congressionally directed earmark.

“It may look like just a concrete box when we’re done with it, but it is surely more than that,” Christen said.

Phase two of the project will be to construct the hot cells.

“They will then be brought in and put together sort of like Lego sets in the building,” Christen said.

The university has yet to secure funding for phase two, though Christen said public-private partnerships, as well as federal funding, are on the table. That construction for the second phase of the project could take over two years and cost anywhere from $23 million to $43 million.