Science and Engineering Hall

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Shaken, But Not Stirred?
GW researchers win government grant to model the impact of earthquakes and other vibrations inside nuclear reactor cores.

The shimmying of last summer’s 5.8-magnitude earthquake in Virginia briefly hit the pause button on the work week in the nation’s capital. But at the North Anna nuclear power plant, 11 miles from the epicenter in central Virginia, that pause lasted nearly three months while inspections and cosmetic repairs were made.

The shutdown was triggered automatically and no serious issues were found, but the process cost more than 100,000 man-hours and $21 million, not to mention lost productivity with the plant offline. A team of GW researchers is now hoping to shed new light on vibrations in nuclear cores and lessen the impact of future earthquakes.

“They didn’t know how the [nuclear cores] reacted because there were no tools to predict the behavior,” said Philippe M. Bardet, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Dr. Bardet and his colleagues Elias Balaras, in mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Majid Manzari, in civil and environmental engineering—who are among the engineers expected to move into the new Science and Engineering Hall—are angling to change that. Earlier this month the U.S. Department of Energy awarded the researchers more $860,000 over three years to devise a model for simulating the impact of vibrations inside a nuclear reactor.

Read more about this research and view renderings and video of the hall.

Fast Facts

A hub of discovery and learning at GW.
State-of-the-art flexible learning and research space.
Eight-story building with two levels of below-ground program space.
Underground parking and ground floor retail space.
Approved by the GW Board of Trustees in October 2010.
Construction will take place between 2011 and 2014.
Estimated cost is $275 million, to be funded primarily with lease payments from Square 54 (across from GW Hospital), indirect cost reimbursement from grants and contracts supporting faculty research, and philanthropic gifts from the GW community.