Department of Nuclear Engineering
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History of The Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor -Mapping Its Role in The Future
February 16, 2017 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
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Dr. Eric Loewen
Chief Consulting Engineer for Advanced Plants Technology
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy
Abstract
This will be a three-part presentation providing an overview of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s (GEH) current commercial efforts, GEH’s sodium fast reactor, and the implications of the future. Commercially, GEH is involved with nuclear power plant construction, servicing the existing fleet and producing nuclear fuel. GEH has a history with sodium fast reactors and our most current design is called PRISM. PRISM was developed from the U.S. sodium cooled fast reactor investigations from 1984 through 1994. The PRISM features of fuel type, basis design, safety and economics will be discussed. The presentation will also discuss the goal in closing the fuel cycle and reducing proliferation resistance and how PRISM, coupled with electro-refining, can provide an integrated technical solution for this new policy.
Bio of Dr. Eric Loewen
Eric Loewen is Chief Consulting Engineer for Advanced Plants Technology for GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, headquartered in Wilmington, NC. Eric began his technical career graduating from Western State College in Gunnison, CO, with a Bachelors degree in Math and Chemistry, then served six years in the Nuclear Navy. Eric left the Navy to pursue a higher degree in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Wisconsin. After attaining his M.S. in Nuclear Engineering in 1992, Eric joined Molten Metal Technology, a high-tech waste processing firm, spearheading and developing their nuclear applications in waste disposal as the Director of Research.
In 1997 Eric returned to Wisconsin to attain his Ph.D. in Engineering Physics, he joined the Idaho National Laboratory to work on development of a lead-bismuth cooled reactor and the proliferation-resistant fuel using thoria-urania as part of the international Generation IV nuclear power program. He also supported the President’s Climate Change Technology Program.
In 2005 Dr. Loewen was selected as the American Nuclear Society’s Congressional Fellow. He spent the year in the office of Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) coordinating the Senator’s successful efforts to include in the Energy Act of 2005 America’s first legislation addressing global climate change. He has worked at GEH since 2006
