Royal Military College of Canada

Energy and Nuclear Science

Author: Dr. Hugues W. Bonin

The last years have been eventful for the staff and students in the nuclear engineering programmes at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) in Kingston, Ontario. Among the several changes is the accessibility of the graduate programmes to civilian (Canadian citizens) students, a fact that is little known outside RMC since, in the past, these graduate programmes were intended only for military personnel. Another major event is the accreditation of the graduate programmes offered by the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (chemical, nuclear and environmental science and engineering) by the Ontario Council of Graduate Studies.

A glance at the internet sites of the Canadian universities offering nuclear engineering programmes (all at the graduate level) reveals that, in terms of teaching and research staff numbers, student populations and research activities, RMC ranks presently among the top universities, if not the very first. At the last CNS-CNA student conference in June 2001, half of the total number of student papers presented were by RMC students, some of them winning the best paper awards at the Master's degree and the undergraduate levels. How was this successful status achieved?

Nuclear engineering has been part of the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum since the mid 1960s, with two fourth year courses given within the chemical engineering programme, along with supporting laboratory experiments. In the mid-1970s, RMC became officially bilingual, and all undergraduate engineering programmes were taught in both English and French, such that a given student had the choice of taking all his courses in English, or in French, or even as a mixture of both languages when possible. The word "his" has been used in the previous sentence since at that time the three military colleges in Canada were accessible only to male students. The colleges became co-ed in 1980. With bilingualism came a major expansion of RMC's teaching and research floor space, with the building of the five-module Sawyer Science/Engineering Complex. The Department then occupied all five floors of Module 5 (plus additional space in other buildings), and, as part of the building plans of Module 5, were included nuclear laboratories with provision for a Reactor pool for a SLOWPOKE-2 nuclear reactor. Budgetary constraints within the Department of National Defence postponed the acquisition of the reactor to 1985.

The graduate nuclear engineering programme started in 1978 with the arrival of the first student at the Master's degree level. Since then, 32 Master's degree students have graduated. The Ph.D. program was initiated in 1991 and two students have graduated since then. At the time of this writing, there are three students in progress at the Master's degree level, and three at the Ph.D. level in nuclear engineering. In addition, some of the teaching staff members supervise graduate studies for students registered at nearby Queen's University.

Initially, the graduate programme was reserved for "sponsored" officers of the Canadian Forces. The term "sponsored" means here that the graduate degree is part of the preparation needed to make the officer competent in a given posting or "military occupation". In this programme of sponsored studies, a military posting that would be vacated two years down the road is identified as becoming available and advertised to career managers and throughout the Forces. Interested officers would then apply for the position, and a competition would then be run among eligible officers. Once accepted by the Forces, the candidate would then apply for admission at RMC's Graduate School, and it is only when formally admitted that the officer would be posted for the 21-month Master's degree program, or longer for a Ph.D. Upon graduation, the officer then serves at the posting requiring the graduate degree, for a period of typically four years. The graduate student receives his or her officer's pay during his or her stay at RMC, and all tuition fees are paid by the Forces. In the early years, there was only one military occupation requiring a Master`s degree in nuclear engineering, now there are five.

A population of "unsponsored" graduate students now equals the former group. These may be military officers or non-commissioned officers, and civilians. Some of them are part-time students, and all have to pay tuition fees which are relatively modest. Full-time "unsponsored" students are eligible to NSERC scholarships (since RMC has recently become eligible to NSERC funding) and to similar scholarships offered by the Department of National Defence under the Defence Research and Development Branch (DRDB) programme. Details of these scholarship programmes may be found on the appropriate internet sites (www.nserc.ca and www.rmc.ca, respectively). Usually most of these students find employment as research assistants for on-going research projects at RMC. As mentioned earlier, there are no longer restrictions to enrolling civilian students in the graduate programmes at RMC other than the need for these students to be Canadian citizens, and, of course, have a strong and relevant academic background.

RMC offers Master's degree and Ph.D. programmes in both nuclear science and engineering. The details of these programmes may be found at the web site of RMC, and the courses and programme regulations are found in the Graduate Studies and Research Calendar, which could be obtained through the internet or by phone. Normal course requirements for an engineering student at the Master's degree level are five one-term graduate courses. These are usually among the following courses: CC511 Health Physics and Radiation Protection, CC515 Nuclear Detection and Measurement, CC523 Nuclear Reactor Engineering, CC525 Nuclear Reactor Safety, and CC565 Nuclear and Radiochemistry. There are many other specialized courses, such as in nuclear fuel engineering, nuclear fuel management, neutron radiography and nuclear waste management. In addition, there is an agreement between RMC and Queen`s University by which students from either institutions may take courses from the other university.

The teaching staff is composed of six full-time professors: Drs. William S. Andrews, Les G.I. Bennett, Hugues W. Bonin, Brent J. Lewis, Lt(N) Martin Pierre and Dr. Sadok Guellouz who recently joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering. There are also three adjunct professors: Drs. Ron G. Hancock, Diana Wilkinson and Major William J. Lewis. In addition to their teaching and thesis supervision duties, these persons are pursuing research in a wide variety of domains, supported by research grants from NSERC and the Academic Research Program (ARP) of the Department of National Defence. Other sources of research funding include research contracts for various agencies of the Department of National Defence (such as the Director General of Nuclear Safety-DGNS), research contracts with the nuclear industry and consultation activities. In the most recently available issue of the Commandant's Report, Part III (FY1999-2000), nuclear-related research funding was reaching some $464,000 for that fiscal year.

The teaching and research staff share the following research areas: radiochemistry and neutron activation analysis, radiation effects on materials, radiation processing of polymers, neutron radiography, nuclear reactor simulation, analysis and design, CANDU fuel bundle optimal design, nuclear fuel cycles and management, nuclear fuel engineering and behaviour, including fission product release modelling, artificial intelligence applications to nuclear systems, nuclear accident response, nuclear radiation detection and measurement, health physics, dosimetry and radiation protection, and nuclear reactor control.

The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering is well provided with equipment supporting the academic program in nuclear science and engineering and the research. The main piece is of course the SLOWPOKE-2 nuclear reactor commissioned in September 1985 and the first with the new fuel elements based on 20%-enriched UO2 pellets. It is estimated that this more performing fuel will permit the operation of the reactor to probably year 2020 before refuelling. The reactor facility was equipped with a neutron radiography system based on an in-house designed neutron beam tube. This system is mostly used for the non-destructive periodic examination of military aircraft wing components. Another key piece of equipment added to the reactor facility is a device called "elevator" which positions large samples in the reactor pool for their irradiation. The nuclear laboratory has been equipped with several neutron activation analysis detector/counting suites based on personal computers. Several other pieces of radiation detection and counting equipment are also provided in support to teaching and research, such as bubble dosimeters, radioactive sources for calibration and other uses, and, very important, an expensive Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TPEC) supporting a major research project on the determination of radiation doses received by the crews of high altitude aircrafts. For computing facilities, students and staff benefit from up-to-date equipment supplied by the College, supplemented by specialized equipment obtained through research funding. Most of the PC-based equipment, plus several larger workstations, are interconnected through the College local area network, which makes possible access to the internet. All this equipment has the usual software (such as Microsoft Office), and many nuclear codes are available, either commercially available codes such as MCNP 4A and Microshield 5™ , or in-house developed software. AECL-based codes are also on-site (WIMS-AECL, VICTORIA, and ORIGEN, among others), and more codes (on thermalhydraulics notably) are on their way to RMC thanks to the kind support of AECL.

In order to conclude this article, let's look at some of the research projects on-going at RMC in nuclear science and engineering. The reader will notice than most of them involve more than one professor, and often teaming nuclear professors with colleagues specialized in other disciplines such as polymer engineering, metallurgical engineering, and chemistry. Some of these research projects involve researchers from the Defence Research Establishments, other federal and provincial agencies, and, of course, experts from the nuclear industry. Several thesis research topics are usually available to graduate students within each one of these projects. The list of projects is indicative of the nuclear research activity at present at RMC, and new topics are frequently added to the list.

In nuclear engineering, Dr. William S. Andrews, (the very first Ph.D. graduate at RMC) has the following research interests: the application of artificial intelligence and neural networks to nuclear systems (with Dr. Brent. J. Lewis), the modelling of the dispersion of aerosols in the atmosphere from transient point sources, which includes the dispersion of air-borne radioactive contaminants. He is also working on a contract to determine the extent of contamination by depleted uranium of Canadian peacekeeping troops.

Dr. Bennett's interests are mainly in neutron radiography and in radiation measurement and instrumentation. With several graduate students over the years, he designed the neutron radiography facility based on the SLOWPOKE-2 reactor, which constitutes a first for this type of facility. More recently, with LCdr Lloyd Cosby, he conceived and implemented a new computer-based control console for RMC's SLOWPOKE-2 reactor. He is also involved with Dr. Lewis in the radiation dose measurement program for high altitude aircrews.

Dr. Hugues W. Bonin is involved in several research projects. With Dr. Van Tam Bui, a colleague specialized in polymer engineering, he conducts research on many aspects of the interaction of radiation with advanced polymers. The main project to-date is the design of containers made of polymer-based composite materials for the long-term storage of radioactive materials, such as high-level radioactive waste (and spent nuclear fuel), and low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste. This research has concentrated in a first part on the resistance to radiations, with the irradiation in the pool of the SLOWPOKE-2 reactor of various types of samples, which identified the most promising candidates for this application: composites made of graphite fibres and epoxies or polyetheretherketone (PEEK). Since these materials must withstand an aggressive radioactive, chemical and thermal environment for centuries, much research remains to confirm the applicability of these promising advanced materials. Another venue is the radiation processing of polymers. An on-going project consists of destroying spent plastic explosives by using radiation. Already a Master's degree thesis and three undergraduate design projects have proven the feasibility of the concept, enhancing the modest radiation doses sufficient to neutralize the nitrocellulose on which the plastic explosives are based.

Dr. Bonin is also actively involved in nuclear fuel management research, having investigated with the help of LCdr Chris Tingle the optimization problem of the fuel management of a 600-MWe CANDU reactor fuelled with advanced fuel cycle fuel bundles, at the approach to refuelling equilibrium. The computer code developed in this research, called CATER, is also suitable for the refuelling equilibrium period, and also for the transition case of an existing CANDU reactor in which the present 37-rod fuel bundles are gradually replaced with advanced fuel bundles like the CANFLEX™.

Another project, just beginning, is the design of a small inherently safe nuclear reactor intended for the supply of electrical energy on-board the new Canadian Victoria-class submarines. This is the Ph.D. thesis topic of Lt(N) Chris Cole, but the research can be extended to make some aspects into thesis topics of future graduate students. Yet another on-going project is the investigation of the economical and environmental implications of the various parts of the fuel cycles for the CANDU reactor. This project is the Master's degree thesis topic of Capt. Charlene Fawcett and is co-supervised by Dr. Kathy Creber, Professor of Chemistry at RMC. Finally, some recent research projects can be pushed further, such as the computer simulation of the SLOWPOKE-2 reactor with the code MCNP 4A (or successor), which was the thesis project for Lt(N) Martin Pierre. There is also the project aimed at determining accurately the radiation doses at various points in the SLOWPOKE-2 reactor and pool, which was the Master's degree project of Lt(N) Greg Lamarre.

Dr. Brent J. Lewis is also very active in nuclear research, his main interest being the study of the behaviour of fission products and the determination of radiation doses to high altitude aircrews. In the former field, Dr. Lewis collaborates with several Canadian and foreign scientists in experimentation and modelling of nuclear fuel behaviour during normal reactor operation and accident conditions. Of particular emphasis is the computer modelling of the source term and the release mechanisms of the fission products from defective fuel elements. This research, with the collaboration with Dr. William T. Thompson, a metallurgy expert member of the Department's teaching staff, uses the FACT computer system to predict the chemical forms taken by these fission products thus permitting more accurate prediction of their behaviour. The research is also extended to the application of artificial intelligence in this domain, with the collaboration of Dr. Bill Andrews.

With the help of Dr. Les Bennett and a team of research assistants and students, Dr. Lewis is intensely involved in a major project aimed at the accurate measurement of the dose rates received by the crews aboard high altitude airplanes from direct and indirect effects of cosmic radiation. This project has become an international collaboration among experts, from institutions such as NASA, Transport Canada, the Canadian Space Agency, the Canadian Forces and various commercial airlines. The RMC group was successful in designing a computer software, PC-AIRE, able to accurately predicting radiation doses to air crews from input data such as the times and locations of flight departure and arrival, altitude flight patterns, time of the year and time within the solar cycle. Dose measurement capabilities have recently been expanded with the acquisition of an expensive Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TPEC) which is often taken on-board commercial flights for gathering experimental data. The computer simulation aspect is also part of this research, with LT(N) Martin Pierre working on this Ph.D. thesis consisting in using Monte-Carlo techniques to simulate and characterize radiation fields and dosimetric implications of the radiation doses received by the air crews.

Dr. Sadok Guellouz joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at RMC in the Summer of 2001, after being a member of AECL's team for more than two years. His research interests cover the broad area of thermalhydraulics with applications to nuclear engineering. His main endeavours are centred on experimental research in fluid turbulence, with applications to channel flow, heat transfer in the subchannels of CANDU fuel bundles, and the development of new and improved measurement techniques.

The nuclear team at RMC is completed by the analytical group which is the main user of the SLOWPOKE-2 nuclear reactor, and made of Dr. Ronald G.V. Hancock and Mrs Kathy Nielsen, SLOWPOKE-2 Facility Director. Besides the many contracts for neutron activation analysis, these persons carry out research in nuclear analytical chemistry in many domains of interest such as: ancient pottery studies, metallic artifacts from Antiquity, investigation of dietary information of ancient tribes from the determination of trace elements in bones, environmental monitoring, archaeological site chronology from the content of glass beads, geophagy, soil and sediment formation, and lithics.

This coverage of the activities within the nuclear science and engineering programmes at RMC reveals the dynamism of the College which is still growing at a fast rate. Being the only completely bilingual university in Canada and a true national institution gathering students and staff from all parts of our country, RMC continues in its mission to support the Canadian Forces, the Department of National Defence, the people of Canada and Canadian industry that includes the nuclear sector. It is in this spirit that the staff has been actively involved with organizations such as the Canadian Nuclear Society and the Canadian Nuclear Association, having hosted four of the Student conferences and three major topical conferences of the CNS. The future can hardly be brighter now that civilian students may be admitted for graduate studies. As you just saw, the research subjects are not missing for good students! For more information, I can be reached on the internet site of RMC at www.rmc.ca or by phone at 613-541-6000 ext. 6613.

Epoxy samples being irradiated in the pool of the SLOWPOKE-2 reactor, in the blue Cerenkov light

schematic end view of a 600-MWe CANDU reactor

Optimal in-core fuel management of a natural uranium fuelled CANDU reactor at approach to refuelling equilibrium: schematic end view of a 600-MWe CANDU reactor showing the channels that have been refuelled twice (in red), once (in blue) or not yet (in white), at refuelling cycle #232.