About

It all started when...

Today, there are only half as many RTR's (Research and Training Reactors) in the US as there were in the early 1960's.  The cost, and the risk of weapons proliferation, make the expense of owning such machines very high for most universities. 

Northwest Nuclear Laboratories has developed a 2 x 10^6 fusion based DD neutron source that provides a continuous neutron flux for medical and materials research. In addition. we aspire to promote an accelerator-driven subcritical reactor, which is a nuclear reactor design formed by coupling a substantially subcritical nuclear reactor core with a high volume neutron generator. It could use thorium as a fuel, which is more abundant than uranium.  The neutrons needed for sustaining the fission process would be provided by the neutron generator. These neutrons would activate the thorium, enabling fission without needing to make the reactor critical. One benefit of such reactors is the relatively short half-lives of their waste products. The neutrons convert fertile thorium to protactinium-233 and after 27 days into fissile uranium-233 and drive the fission reaction in the uranium. Thorium does not require significant refining, unlike uranium and has a higher neutron yield per neutron absorbed.