Professor tests reactor shields for safety
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 10/14/2009
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One Purdue professor knows a lot about stress.
Typically, Amit Varma, an associate professor of civil engineering, works until 2 a.m. and then wakes up for his 8:30 class on the design of steel structures. In his office, empty coffee mugs sit next to steel bolts. Despite the hours, graduate student Emily Blocksom said, “I’ve never seen him not kind of up.”
Varma also knows a lot about stress in the structural sense. Working tirelessly at Purdue’s Bowen Laboratory, he has been testing and analyzing the structural integrity of a new nuclear shield building technology.
Shield buildings are several-feet-thick barriers encasing nuclear reactors, protecting the outside world from harmful radiation, Varma said.
Traditionally, the structure was made out of concrete, reinforced with steel bars inside of it. Constructing this design was costly and slow.
For the first new nuclear power plants in nearly two decades, a design from Westinghouse Electric Company could be used featuring concrete sandwiched between two steel plates. Varma said constructing this design would be much faster and cheaper than the old version.
The catch is that safety cannot be comprised. This is where Varma’s research on the shield building comes in.
Westinghouse Electric Company has given a grant to Purdue to experimentally evaluate the performance of the shield building, Varma said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever worked on something as important as this.”
Each test, according to Varma, costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and replicates stress from events like earthquakes. Varma said if quality research on the Westinghouse design is done, others will come to Purdue to have designs tested, making Purdue a leader in the field.
In the face of his huge task, Varma is glad this opportunity came at such a young age. His students give him praise and a little innocent jest.
“He gives a lot of space to try your own things,” said graduate student Anil Agarwal.
Quickly adding to this, Blocksom warned that students must be prepared for frequent movie quotes in most conversations.
Family life also provides Varma relief from work.
“I can walk home with the biggest workload and forget about it in five minutes,” Varma said.
After building a windmill out of K’Nex with his daughter, Stuti, he jokingly regretted the lack of nuclear power.
Varma said, “I always find time to have fun.”