IAEA’s Internet Reactor Laboratory expands access to training

The International Atomic Energy Agency established its Internet Reactor Laboratory (IRL) program as one solution for a country that has a research reactor to provide practical reactor operating experience to nuclear engineering students, usually-but not always-in IAEA member states that do not have a research reactor.

The IRL concept was originally developed by a U.S. Department of Energy-funded research reactor consortium in which North Carolina State University (NCSU) successfully demonstrated that an Internet computer link could deliver practical experiments from its PULSTAR reactor to students at other universities in the United States. The next step-to develop the concept internationally-grew from an existing relationship between NCSU and the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), which had set up the country's first nuclear engineering program in 2007 to supply Jordan's nuclear energy program with fully qualified nuclear engineers. The IRL project was inaugurated at JUST's Department of Nuclear Engineering in November 2010.

The possibility of extending access to research reactors to young nuclear engineers and scientists using an Internet-based remote learning tool was critical to convincing the IAEA to provide the support needed for an international Internet project.

According to Andrea Borio di Tigliole, head of the Research Reactor Section in the IAEA's Department of Nuclear Energy, the IRL project is a particularly effective solution for a country without a research reactor to take advantage via the Internet of a country that has one. While not a hands-on experience, he said, it does provide students with practical experience.

During a live broadcast, a student even has an opportunity to ask the operator to carry out a particular action on the reactor, which can be done if the operator determines that it is safe. If it is not, it won't be performed, but the student will be told exactly why it is not safe, thereby enhancing the student's understanding of how a reactor works.

As part of the IRL program, students are also able to participate in practical training exercises, such as bringing the reactor to a critical state after an instructor in the control room explains how to do it. This particular exercise will involve a number of tasks, such as calculating the distance the reactor's control rods have to be withdrawn in order for the reactor to become critical. Students can also ask questions about the experiment or about what they are seeing.

While this is not a replacement for a practical training component of a nuclear engineering course, Borio said, it is practical in the sense that students see the actual activities at the research reactor control room in real time, and they collect real data live online and can analyze it live or offline. He stressed that it is much better than a simulator and has been shown to have a positive impact on the students. According to those who have participated in the sessions, the students receive an extraordinarily realistic sense of operating the reactor.