Mechanical Engineers Receive Grant

The Dominion Foundation, operator of the Millstone Nuclear Power Complex in Waterford, Conn., has donated $10,000 to the Mechanical Engineering Department’s Energy and Sustainable Design Concentration. The gift supports the development of an operating see-through reactor model. Drs. Tom Filburn, Ivana Milanovic (the department chair), and Cy Yavuzturk are creating the working model in an effort to incorporate nuclear engineering into the Energy Concentration.

The see-through reactor will allow students to see the operation of a nuclear power plant—using electric heaters in place of nuclear fuel—including typical plant layout and normal and off-normal functioning. The model will be used to demonstrate plant startup, shutdown, and emergency procedures while allowing visual access to the components.

In addition to the $10,000 gift from the Dominion Foundation, which will allow the department to begin work on the model, Dr.s Filburn, Milanovic, and Yavuzturk have a proposal with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission requesting the funding to complete the hardware and create two courses that will use the model, an example of which is pictured below.