The University of Massachusetts’s research reactor can safely use fuel it obtained from a separate, decommissioned test reactor in the Bay State, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined in a license renewal document unveiled this week.
NRC approved UMass’s request to allow its Lowell, Mass., test reactor to use “slightly irradiated” aluminum-clad uranium-aluminide fuel it obtained from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s (WPI) former reactor, according to the project’s license renewal documents published Monday by the agency. UMass Lowell had previously been licensed to possess, but not use, such fuel, NRC said.
Agency staff found that UMass Lowell’s request was “reasonable,” and that it was “supported by analyses showing that the [reactor] can be safety [sic] operated with the WPI fuel,” the license renewal said.
WPI’s research reactor was fully decommissioned in 2014. The site shut down for good in 2007.
Meanwhile, NRC’s renewal authorizes the Lowell reactor to operate for an additional 20 years, until 2042. UMass first submitted its request for a license renewal back in 2015. The Lowell reactor was first licensed by NRC predecessor the Atomic Energy Commission back in 1974.
