Every year IIT celebrates the Nuclear Science Week, hosting some sort of event to commemorate the occasion. Some might recall 2022’s ‘Art of the Reactor’ display in Hermann Hall, which was an awesome event with art reflecting nuclear power displayed. These events hit close to home considering IIT’s history with the field; in 1956 IIT became home to the world’s first privately owned nuclear reactor – The Armour Research Foundation Reactor, with the motto “Another New Research Tool in Industry’s Constant Fight to Better Man’s Way of Life.” While the reactor was decommissioned in 1967, the large vault door still exists in Tech Central, along with a plaque commemorating the reactor. In my opinion, this is the coolest piece of IIT history.
This year’s nuclear science week was the host to several speakers from the industry; the Navy, fusion start-ups, and commercial fission reactors were all represented. The event was hosted, as it has been for many years now, by our very own Dr. Jeff Terry, who has a long and colorful history in the field (Somehow, I find myself hearing new stories every time we talk). While I have not fully participated in all the previous Nuclear Week events, as a prospective Health Physics student, I could not miss such a lucrative event.
In a time of great uncertainty in the job market for graduates, it’s a good idea to get a foot in the door. Fortunately, the nuclear industry is alive as ever. Many states are opening to nuclear power; Illinois repealed its 36-year moratorium allowing for construction of new small-scale reactors under 300 MW. Trump has also signed several executive orders aiming to fuel this nuclear boom, including allowing the extraction of nuclear materials from national parks and hastening the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to grant licenses faster, including to new reactors.
I came into the Nuclear Week talks not really knowing what to expect, I actually had only heard of the event the day prior. The attendance was rather small, with only around eight people attending in total, including a few graduates. I arrived a bit late, and I missed a good portion of the talk about the Navy, though submarines and the military are not things I would gleefully join in on. Two recruiters from the Navy were in attendance, though had not stuck around.
Perhaps the most interesting of the series was the talk about the future of nuclear fusion. Many start-ups exist aiming to tackle this challenge, employing hundreds of people across all sorts of sectors; engineers of all types, physicists, administrators. Fusion is perhaps mankind’s final frontier and would be a testament to nearly every field of human ingenuity, harnessing quite literally the power of a star. The prospect of what is described as unlimited clean energy is certainly a driver, with investors and the government eager to sign on.
Fusion seems like a risky gamble. The first outcome is the loss of the fusion race to Chinese fusion reactor teams, who have had landmark successes in recent years. Conversely, it is possible American, or even European teams take the gold. In either case, we would likely see a revolution in energy production akin to the original nuclear boom. On the other side of the gamble is the failure to achieve fusion practically, which could originate from investments falling apart, or the possibility sustained fusion that is able to produce energy is impossible. I am hopeful for the prospect of fusion, and I do believe it will be achieved in our lifetimes. We have already successfully demonstrated we can do fusion, at this point it is a matter of commercialization.
The next talk focused on commercial fission power plants, including opportunities as well as the direction of their future. There has been huge interest in fission power, especially with the unbelievable demand from data centers. Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, among others, all have invested in fission. Microsoft is reviving Three Mile Island, and many rector companies are partnering with these big names to meet their energy demands. All these increases in demand create opportunities for graduates to find employment, as reactors need a small army of staff to operate. I have long imagined the prospect of working at a nuclear power plant. As a long-time fan of Fallout, my childhood self would certainly be amazed if that is where I end up.
The final talk was given by our own Dr. Jeff Terry, regarding the feasibility of small modular reactors (SMRs) to power data centers. Many companies have proposed designs for SMRs, but none have been developed yet. The study he presented boiled down several SMR designs, to find an ideal SMR to use to power data centers, considering several factors like size, energy production, and fuel type.
SMRs are a novel approach to the energy race, they are particularly lucrative due to their scalability, compactness, and potential cost savings. An SMR can quite easily power a large data center. Of course, this would also require staff to operate, and implementing this widescale would have its own logistical issues like staffing and the cost of building the first SMR. With time and resources, SMRs could become the standard for powering data centers.
One of the chief issues with data centers is how inefficient they are. Half of the energy used in a data center is used to cool the systems. That is on top of the reality that our energy grid is already wildly inefficient, with around 70% of the energy we produce being lost to heat. Is it wise to use these resources on something that is this inefficient?
Many people have been speculating about an ‘AI Bubble,’ akin to the 2008 housing bubble. There is growing skepticism about the seemingly endless growth in the sector. Many companies like OpenAI require huge profits in the trillions of dollars to make good on their promises, and we have yet to see the return on investment. There is concern around the chips used to power these centers; what happens in five years if these chips are degraded or irrelevant compared to newer models? As more speculation on the market arises, we must wonder whether investing in SMRs and data centers is worthwhile, and are we setting ourselves up for a massive crash?
By the end of the event, the taste of nuclear energy became sour in my mouth. My interest in nuclear power has always been on the basis of environmentalism. The climate is teetering towards the brink of collapse, and it is more important than ever we invest in ensuring our future. Nuclear power, and green energy more broadly, is vital to that goal. We cannot sustainably live on fossil fuels and coal. The idea of revolutionizing our energy infrastructure to be more reliant on nuclear energy is wonderful, but what are we going to use this energy for?
What we have seen in the last five years in the demand for data centers has become concerning. At risk of drawing on for too long into this tangent, as this has been discussed in depth elsewhere, I will summarize my thoughts: Data centers require massive amounts of energy, and as a result, the nation has seen energy bills rise. These centers are built often in underprivileged areas, fueled by natural gas that pollutes the region (Look up Elon Musk’s xAI in Memphis). The water demand from data centers has left many residents in the footprint of them with no drinkable water. In many cases, data center companies make backdoor deals with local governments to construct these plants, against the wishes of residents. For instance, residents of the Chicago suburb Elk Grove Village have becoming increasingly displeased with the amount of investment in data centers.
All of this is on top of the fact that what AI has been used for has been wildly controversial. There are certainly many good practical applications, such as research, but with the rise of ‘AI slop,’ an increase in dissemination of misinformation, and the replacement of numerous jobs, it becomes questionable whether AI benefits humanity overall. Even with nuclear power being used here to ‘go green,’ most of these issues will persist. The prospect of going into the nuclear world for the betterment of our planet has become tainted. In good conscience, I do not want to go into this field to further these interests.
My overall feelings coming out of the event were depressing. The history of private nuclear power started so hopefully, right in our backyard; a private nuclear reactor used for research, paving the way for the nuclear boom, and bringing about a new age for humanity. From massive amounts of energy, to advances in medicine, fission has proven to be the single greatest achievement of the 20th century. Dr. Terry reiterated a motto written on a sign outside the Armour Nuclear Reactor: “Another New Research Tool in Industry’s Constant Fight to Better Man’s Way of Life.” As I left the talk, I couldn’t help but feel that the motto had become but a relic of the past, decaying away in a pile of nuclear waste.
References:
https://repository.iit.edu/islandora/object/islandora%3A1004684