Welcome to nuclear101.com -- your web-based resource for a variety of nuclear science and engineering educational materials.

The purpose of this website is to serve as an educational resource for students, instructors, and working professionals who are interested in the nuclear engineering field. The primary focus is on nuclear reactor physics, reactor operations, and the modeling and analysis of nuclear systems (since this is the author's primary area of expertise). However, we eventually hope to touch on many different aspects of reactor design and operation, so there will probably be something here that will be of interest to anyone working in this field.

This site is currently under construction. The basic layout for the site has been available since early 2004. However, we expect that it will remain quite dynamic for the foreseeable future as new information is added and/or modified over the coming months and years. We hope to add a few new modules each semester for the next several years, eventually providing a relatively large inventory of educational materials to the nuclear community.

The unique aspect of this site is that it provides a direct link to data from the UMass-Lowell research reactor (UMLRR) -- a real operating research reactor that can provide real data to illustrate many of the basic concepts needed in the design and operation of any nuclear system. Direct access to archived experimental data from the reactor (power level, flow rate, various temperatures, etc.) can be used to illustrate the actual operation of the UMLRR facility as well as highlight some specific aspect of the underlying physics that governs the physical processes under study. In addition, direct access to real-time operating data from the UMLRR is also provided -- which allows a user to view reactor operational data, in real time, as an experiment is being performed. This real-time capability, via the UMLRR Online link, should be great for live demonstrations and for active participation in live experiments. Many aspects of the UMLRR are also highlighted through several of the applications included as part of the Lecture Notes, Demos & Expts, Computer Programs, etc. In fact, most everything on this site is related, in some fashion, to the UMass-Lowell research reactor. The UMLRR has been a terrific educational resource for the students at UMass-Lowell for many years and, through this site, we would like to share this rather unique resource beyond the physical boundaries of UMass-Lowell.

This site is brought to you by Prof. J. R. White, his students, and the staff and management of the UMLRR. Prof. White has 20+ years experience teaching undergraduate and graduate students within the Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Department at UMass-Lowell (see Prof. White's personal website for more details on his teaching and research activities). The goal of the current website is simply to make some of this experience and many of the unique educational aspects of the UMass-Lowell research reactor available to a much wider audience. We hope that you find the information provided here useful in your studies. Enjoy!!!

Note: Because the software used to access data from the reactor only allows a fixed number of simultaneous users, and to maintain a record of users who visit this site and access the UMLRR Online resource, we have implemented a login procedure that requires a pre-assigned user name and password. Thus, much of the information on this site is password protected, and interested educators and working professionals will need to request appropriate login information. If you are interested, please fill in the form under the User Access link to request a valid user account.

Acknowledgements: This website, especially the UMLRR Online component, was funded in part by a Department of Energy (DOE) grant through the Reactor Sharing Program at UMass-Lowell (Grant # DE-FG07-02ID14378). This support is greatly appreciated and, in the near future, it should lead to much wider use of the UMass-Lowell research reactor as remote users outside the University get an opportunity to share some of the reactor's unique capabilities. We would also like to thank InduSoft Ltd. for donating their InduSoft Web Studio software to the University for use in this project.

Last updated by Prof. John R. White (July 2006)