Nuclear industry insiders are quick to call for innovation and attracting the next generation of the nuclear workforce, but taking these bold steps into the future can take years or decades to accomplish. At Purdue University, work has been nearly completed on the design, installation, and, most important, licensing of a fully digitized instrumentation and control system. The safety system utilizes an internationally certified neutron flux monitor in its scram circuitry, and the control system runs on a commercially available desktop computer. In a first of its kind implementation, the Purdue University reactor is moving toward a completely integrated digital nuclear space. The Purdue University Reactor Number One (PUR-1), a materials test reactor plate-type facility, first went critical in the late summer of 1962. Its initial mission was low-level neutronics research and materials testing, and it primarily served the undergraduate and graduate educational mission of the university. Early startup testing showed noise issues in the startup channel at low count rates, a problem that would plague the facility for the next 50 years. Noise spikes in this channel and its associated circuitry would cause spurious signals within the period meter, causing intermittent and unpredictable shutdowns. Facility documentation and log books show a perpetual cycle of problem identification, attempted correction, unexplainable return to operability, and approximately five years of consistent use. This cycle of "fail, find, fix" would rapidly accelerate in the 2000s, leading to a declared indefinite shutdown in 2013.
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