Paul and Robyn Cadell of Silverton have announced that their son Seth Cadell has finished his dissertation and defense in his work at Oregon State University to earn his PhD in Nuclear Engineering.
After Seth finished his Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Physics at Principia College in Elsah, Ill. he felt that he could be involved in the new systems of nuclear power generation that may prove to be a safe, efficient, and clean energy source for the near future. His work at OSU included leading the design group for the High Temperature Test Facility (HTTF) that is being built at OSU. The HTTF will test operational characteristics and simulate failures of a high temperature helium cooled nuclear reactor. A gas cooled reactor could be twice as efficient as current boiling water reactors and be safer to operate. Seth has been working for NuScale Power since June 2012 as a nuclear design engineer. The company is developing small modular nuclear reactors that can be built more efficiently and be more flexible in how they are used.
Seth and his wife Anna live in Corvallis. Anna is nearing the completion of her doctoral work in French literature. She travels but enjoys having Corvallis as a home base. They live with Anna’s cat Henry and the family of deer that spend a lot of time in their yard.
While Seth was at Principia College he was involved with the Solar Car Team. The team built cars that competed in races with other cars, all of which are powered only by the sun. The Principia Solar Car has done well in competitions around the world against other schools including MIT, Stanford and University of Michigan. One of the races was from Austin, Texas to Calgary, Alberta. Another was across Australia, and another was in Taiwan. Seth was responsible for designing and building most of the suspension and chassis and much of the electronic systems.
Seth graduated from Silverton High School in 1998. He thanks the teachers who inspired him to love learning and to appreciate the challenge of mastering a project. After high school Seth worked for Kuenzi Construction, Potelco Inc. and Mudrick Underground on directional boring crews and enjoyed working in the outdoors.
When his sister Mary talked him into going back to school he worked hard to succeed at new goals. Seth helped his dad build farm machinery when he was young, joined his mother in studying music, and enjoyed many years playing the trumpet in Silverton school bands.
