The WSUR core consists of a rectangular aluminum box suspended from a movable bridge structure. Surrounding the core is a 242,000 liter pool of high purity deionized light water, which is used as both a coolant, shield, and moderator. Inside the core box there is a bottom grid-plate into which 3 and 4-rod clusters of TRIGA fuel sit separated by boron-aluminum (Boral, boron carbide in aluminium matrix) control elements. These control elements are raised out of the core via servo-motors to control reactor power. Power is monitored via three different and independent detectors that sit inside the core structure; there is a compensated ion chamber, an uncompensated ion chamber, and a fission chamber in three of the four corners of the grid box.United States. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Research and Test Reactors. Safety Analysis Report for the Washington State University Modified TRIGA Nuclear Reactor. Washington DC: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 2002. Print.
