ANS President Grecheck to designate TRIGA nuclear landmark.

Eugene S. Grecheck, President of the national American Nuclear Society, will travel to the Urbana campus for the Friday, April 22, designation of the former TRIGA Reactor as a National Nuclear Historic Landmark.

Grecheck will participate in unveiling a marker being constructed to commemorate the designation of the TRIGA, officially known as the University of Illinois Advanced Teaching Research Isotope General Atomic (TRIGA Mark II) Reactor. The marker will be located at the site where the former reactor once stood, in a grassy area east of the Engineering Science Building. The dedication ceremony is set for 1:30 p.m.

Grecheck will also take the opportunity to interact with NPRE students, faculty and alumni.

Grecheck is a seasoned executive with 40 years of experience in commercial nuclear power generation, including operations, engineering, licensing, training, security and emergency planning, new plant development, and nuclear safety review.

His career spanned over 38 years with Dominion Resources, through which he held positions including nuclear station manager, site vice president at two different stations, and vice president over nuclear services and nuclear engineering. For over a decade, Grecheck led Dominion’s new plant development activities, including cooperative agreements with the Department of Energy on NP2010, and submittal of applications for an Early Site Permit and a Combined Operating License for the proposed North Anna Unit 3.

Grecheck is a native of Schenectady, N.Y. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). He earned an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MBA Upgrade from Syracuse University. He also completed The Executive Program at the Darden Graduate School of the University of Virginia, as well as the Senior Plant Management Course that INPO conducts. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensed Grecheck as a Senior Reactor Operator.

He was chairman of the Nuclear Energy Institute’s Executive Task Force on new plants and a member of the NEI Task Force on radiation protection, as well as vice chair of the Electric Power Research Institute Advanced Nuclear Plant Steering Committee and a member of the Nuclear Power Council. Grecheck currently serves on the Mechanical/Nuclear Engineering Advisory Board for RPI, and was a representative for the United States on the Gen IV International Forum.

By designating the former TRIGA Reactor as a National Nuclear History Landmark, ANS has identified and memorialized the facility as having been instrumental in the advancement and implementation of nuclear technology and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. It is cited for “educating students in reactor operations,” and for “groundbreaking research in the areas of fission fragment physics, nuclear pumped lasers, nuclear batteries, neutron activation analysis, radioisotope production, nuclear reactor kinetics, coupled core kinetics, and neutron pulse propagation.”

The TRIGA, which operated from 1960 to 1998, was extremely popular at the University of Illinois; being used primarily for the training of students in nuclear engineering, but also as an interdisciplinary facility, with the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Physiology and Biophysics, Physics and various other engineering departments all competing for time with the facility.

Generations of nuclear engineering students at Illinois were privileged to have participated in research projects, laboratory studies, and operating experiences. Scores of nuclear industry reactor operators trained on the facility, and thousands of visitors touring the TRIGA learned first-hand about the importance of nuclear energy. A number of students entering the nuclear engineering program at Illinois were influenced by their tours of TRIGA, which was a popular stopping point during Engineering Open House.

Administrative decisions led to TRIGA’s closure in 1998, and fuel removal in 2004. The dismantlement of the remaining portions of the reactor and Nuclear Reactor Building on the Urbana campus was completed in 2012.