At the nation’s only all-digital nuclear reactor, engineers conduct the first experiments of their kind in the U.S. - News
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At the nation’s only all-digital nuclear reactor, engineers conduct the first experiments of their kind in the U.S.
The experiments could accelerate the deployment of advanced reactors by testing new capabilities that may help lower costs, increase safety and lifespan
Purdue University’s 64-year-old reactor gained capabilities in 2019 that next-generation reactors will also have when they are built, making it an ideal facility for testing AI, remote monitoring, autonomous control and advanced cybersecurity techniques newer reactors will be able to use. (Purdue University photo/John Underwood)
July 10, 2026
Kayla Albert
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Underground on Purdue University’s campus is the only nuclear reactor of its kind in the U.S.
Although used just for research purposes — the total energy the reactor generates powers about the equivalent of 10 microwaves — Purdue University Reactor Number One has specific features that no other reactor in the U.S. has. But those features are coming in the next generation of reactors.
With these features, future reactors could cost less to operate and maintain, be safer and last longer — removing barriers in building additional reactors to increase generation of carbon-free electricity. Research that Purdue engineers are conducting with these features is helping develop new techniques that reactors could use to achieve these goals, which align with the university’s efforts to investigate nuclear energy.
These features could be summed up with one word: “digital.” Purdue’s reactor, called “PUR-1” for short, is the first in the nation to be controlled and operated digitally — think computer screens, keyboards and ethernet cables — rather than with dials, knobs and other analog technology that U.S. reactors have been using since the 1960s.
Although some countries already have reactors with digital controls, PUR-1 is the only all-digital reactor that has been licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. All-digital means that the “nervous system” of the reactor, its instrumentation and control system, entirely uses digital technology. The digital capabilities of other reactors in the U.S. are mostly limited to sensors and have not been applied to controls.
“Our switch to digital instrumentation and control signaled to the nuclear industry that this is possible in the U.S.,” said Seungjin Kim, the Capt. James F. McCarthy, Jr. and Cheryl E. McCarthy Head of Purdue’s School of Nuclear Engineering and facility director of PUR-1.
PUR-1 was built in 1962 and converted from analog to digital in 2019 with support from the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy (grant DE-NE000498). Since this digital upgrade, Purdue engineering faculty and students have been performing first-of-a-kind experiments that are unique to the nuclear sector.
Purdue University Reactor Number One emits a blue glow, called Cerenkov radiation, that can be seen in the dark. This light is produced by electrons traversing the water at a speed greater than the speed of light in water. (Purdue University photo/John Underwood)
Their findings are helping inform the development of advanced reactors such as small modular reactors and microreactors, which would be significantly smaller and easier to construct than existing reactors so that they can power more communities, even in rural or remote areas. For efficiency, many of these reactors will be operated from a distance by the same control center, which means they will need to communicate digitally.
Going digital would also allow operators to take measurements from a reactor in real time and use artificial intelligence tools to monitor the reactor’s performance. They could better predict and detect problems in between regularly scheduled maintenance, which would improve a reactor’s safety and lifespan.
Revealing the potential of AI for nuclear reactors
PUR-1 has started serving as the nation’s first reactor test bed to help the industry figure out how digital communication, AI tools and cybersecurity methods could work at a larger scale for advanced reactors.
The lab of Purdue nuclear engineering assistant professor and associate PUR-1 director Stylianos Chatzidakis completed building a “digital twin” of PUR-1 in 2023 that has allowed his research group and collaborators to do experiments on a digital copy of the reactor without affecting its operation. Funding from the...