Beadle — Operations Engineer — Connecting Research Needs to Experimental Capabilities
Contact: zachary.beadle@wsu.edu
Background:
I came to HYPER in the spring of 2024, after nearly a decade working in the nuclear research industry, both at university research reactors, and as national lab operating staff. My interest in cryogenics originally came from an interest in precision radiation measurement, where freezing out thermal noise is essential for studying nuclear phenomena in isolation.
When I held a senior reactor operator’s license, a crucial part of my job was performing safety assessments on new proposed experiments using the reactor. My job was, in essence, to “foresee the unforeseeable” – to come up with every possible thing that could go wrong, and determine what safety precautions needed to be in place to prevent or mitigate it.
My goal at HYPER is to bring that same attention to operational safety and reliability from the nuclear industry into liquid hydrogen research. Every new experiment performed at HYPER brings new potential risks along with opportunities, and identifying those risks is the first step towards finding a way to work around them safely.
At HYPER:
As HYPER’s operations engineer, I take responsibility for the physical facility that is HYPER and ensure that all of our researchers have everything they need to perform their research safely and reliably. I’m involved in the design, safety analysis, maintenance, and operation of every one of HYPER’s test stand stations, as well as the infrastructure supplying them all with electrical power, gas supply and exhaust, and coolant water.
In addition to supporting HYPER’s permanent researchers, I’m also responsible for HYPER’s Service Center, where we offer our experimental facilities and technical expertise to partners at universities, national labs, and industry users worldwide. Beyond the Standardized Service Center Tests advertised on our website, we’re constantly interested in identifying unmet needs in the industry, and expanding our own capabilities to meet those needs. If you or your group have cryogenic tests you’d like to see performed, even if they don’t fit cleanly into any of our advertised test capabilities, send me an email and we’ll see how our facility can help support your work.
Finally, I’m an instructor for the Cool Fuel School – a week-long course held semiannually where we teach the basics of engineering around cryogenic hydrogen. If you or your team is looking to develop the expertise needed to work safely around cryogenic liquids and are interested in a rigorous course, send me an email for information on course availability and to be added to the wait list!