WSUR meaning in Academic & Science ?

Answer: What is Washington State University Reactor mean?

The Washington State University Reactor (WSUR) is housed in the Dodgen Research Facility, and was completed in 1961. The (then) Washington State College Reactor was the brainchild of Harold W. Dodgen, a former researcher on the Manhattan Project where he earned his PhD from 1943 to 1946. He secured funding for the ambitious 'Reactor Project' from the National Science Foundation, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the College administration totaling $479,000 (roughly $4 million in 2019 dollars). Dodgen's basis for constructing a reactor was that the College was primly located as a training facility for the Hanford site, as well as Idaho National Laboratory because there was no other research reactor in the West at that time. After completing the extensive application and design process with the help of contractors from General Electric they broke ground in August 1957 and the first criticality was achieved on March 7, 1961 at a power level of 1W. They gradually increased power over the next year to achieve their maximum licensed operating power of 100 kW.

It was initially a General Electric Materials Test Reactor with plate-type fuel bundles, but was upgraded in 1967 to a 1MW General Atomics TRIGA (Teaching Research Isotopes General Atomics) reactor. Standard TRIGA fuel rods are cylindrical rods, clad in stainless steel utilizing Uranium-235 dispersed in a ceramic zirconium-hydride matrix as fuel. The WSUR operated with this TRIGA fuel until the Fuel Life Improvement Program (FLIP) once again upgraded the reactor in 1976 with a partial new core of high-enriched 'TRIGA FLIP' fuel designed for an extended lifetime. Two years later, in 1978, due to global fears of nuclear proliferation it was federally mandated that all high-enriched reactor fuel (except for military use) be replaced with Low Enriched Uranium Fuel (LEU). Due to the extensive work, cost, and the number of research reactors undergoing the procedure, the WSUR was not converted until October 2008. All FLIP fuel was replaced by another TRIGA fuel known as 30/20 LEU and when the new core went critical on October 7, 2008 it became the world's only mixed 8.5/20 (Standard TRIGA) and 30/20 LEU core. The facility license was renewed for an additional 20 years upon completion of a safety analysis and review. The effective date was September 30, 2011.

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