WELCOMEto the Department of Nuclear

Engineering

Dr. Pavel Tsvetkov

Honors Program Coordinator

and Associate Professor

tsvetkov@tamu.edu

Marna Stepan

Undergraduate Program

Coordinator

marna@tamu.edu

Nuclear engineering application areas

Electricity Water Security & Health

(Energy) (Vital Supplies) (Support)

Overview Preparation Experience Career Path

Innovative changes made in power

Safer More economic More advanced

Overview Preparation Experience Career Path

Modern uses of nuclear energy, radioactive

and radiation tolerant materials…

• Power

• Propulsion

• Materials

• Defense applications

• Food and Medical Supply Sterilization

• Industrial Radiography

• Research

• Medical X rays

• Nuclear Medicine

Overview Preparation Experience Career Path

Who are we?

• Largest nuclear engineering

department in U.S.

– 330+ undergraduate

students

– 150+ graduate students

• Nationally ranked programs (public institutions)

– Undergraduate, ranked 2nd

– Graduate, ranked 2nd

• Only department in U.S. with 2 nuclear reactors on campus

• Strong, exceptional facilities

Overview Preparation Experience Career Path

Zero Power teaching reactor

1 MW TRIGA research reactor

Full-scope nuclear power plantsimulator laboratory

Experience

• Robust academic program

• Early professional engagement through

professional organizations

– (ANS, ASME, WIN, INMM, …)

• Research

• Internship and co-op programs

• International study opportunities

– (Europe, China, Japan, India, …)

• Mentoring by faculty

– (2 individual advisors for each student, mentor groups

led by faculty research groups)

Overview Preparation Experience Career Path

Computational Methods DevelopmentSetting the standard for multidisciplinary research

• Multiphysics coupling with application to reactors and high-energy density physics• Transport discretization and solution schemes, parallelization• Shock hydrodynamics methods• Adaptive-mesh transport and diffusion• Uncertainty quantification applied to transport and nuclear reliability

Research Themes

Activities

Accomplishments

Faculty

Ryan McClarren

Jim Morel

Jean Ragusa

Marvin Adams

Adaptive Mesh Refinement Multiphysics

Novel Numerical Techniques• Radiation Transport (neutrons, photons, and charged particles)• Multiphysics Applications e.g., neutronics/thermal hydraulics; radiative transfer

• Demonstrated an exponentially-convergent Monte Carlo algorithm for a continuum transport system

• Developed and implemented a massively-parallel long-characteristic transport method

• Pioneered adaptive mesh refinement techniques for transport solvers

• Engineered a tightly coupled multiphysics software platform

• Devised robust and accurate spherical harmonics methods for time-dependent transport

FAC

ULT

Y/R

ESEA

RC

H

Health & Medical Physics, Radiation Biology

Research Themes

Activities

Accomplishments

Faculty

Leslie Braby

John Ford

GamalAkabani

John Poston

• Diagnostic radiology physics• Radiation detection• Radiation therapy & radiobiology• Proton and heavy ion therapy• Nuclear nanotechnologies• Effects of cosmic rays on electronics• High-energy, heavy-ion microdosimetry• Nuclear oncology & internal dosimetry• Image reconstruction methods

• Implementation of high-energy charged particle transport via FLUKA and PHITS Monte Carlo codes

• Tested miniaturized dosimeter for use in space suite during EVA

• Completed detector development for Space Station dosimeter

• Irradiated one cell nucleus in a living organism and found chromosome damage in many other cells

• Developed and tested new beta-emitting injectable brachytherapy sources for prostate cancer

• Monte Carlo transport on GPUs• Updated controls on microbeam

FAC

ULT

Y/R

ESEA

RC

H

Nuclear Materials & Fuel Cycles

• Radiation tolerant cladding materials• Advanced fuel fabrication methods• Advanced radiation detector• Advanced neutron generator• Nuclear waste behavior, monitoring, and processing• Aerosol research• Multi-scale modeling of materials degradation under extreme conditions

Research Themes

Activities

AccomplishmentsFaculty

Sean McDeavitt(Nuclear SceinceCenter Director)

Kenneth Peddicord

Lin Shao

Largest single university ion irradiation lab in US!

• Developing fabrication methods and evaluating the performance of novel nuclear fuel forms

• Alloys: U-Zr and U-Mo• Ceramic: UO2-BeO composite• Dispersion: Metal matrix alloys and barrier coating methods

• Characterized the metallurgy of U-Zr and U-Mo alloy fuels• Developed swelling resistant metallic and ceramic materials• Developed multi-scale modeling codes to understand damage evolution caused by fission fragments• Developed bendable neutron detection sheets

FAC

ULT

Y/R

ESEA

RC

H

Nuclear Power Engineering

Research Themes Activities

Accomplishments

Faculty

Yassin Hassan(Department Head)

Pavel Tsvetkov

Karen Vierow

Experimental validation of modern simulations is key to quantifying uncertainties!

• Published results on gas/liquid flooding in large diameter tubes• Published results on modeling condensation heat transfer• Published integrated system evaluation results for HTRs• Developing evaluation capabilities for HTR’s (NRC)• Integrated code system for advanced systems (SNL)• First-of-a-kind 3-dim fuel management and instrumentation

Design, development and evaluations in response to critical national needs in power engineering.

• Nuclear reactor safety• Nuclear reactor and system analysis and optimization• Validation and uncertainty of CFD codes• Sub-channel analysis of advanced fuel designs• HTR Thermal hydraulics and reactor physics• Small modular reactors• Integration of PRA and best estimate codes• Loading optimization for current and advanced reactors• Flow visualization in complex reactor geometries (PIV)• Data uncertainty validation and uncertainties• Advanced reactor instrumentation• 3-dim study of two-phase flows• Core hot-spot prediction• Studies in response to critical industry needs

FAC

ULT

Y/R

ESEA

RC

H

Nuclear Security & Nonproliferation

• Proliferation Risk Analysis• Safeguards Systems & Instrument Development• Combating Nuclear Terrorism• Nuclear Forensics and Attribution• Arms Control• Ensuring the Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy

Research Themes

Activities

Members

Sunil Chirayath

(Interim NSSPI Director)

David Boyle

Craig Marianno

Paul Nelson

Accomplishments

• First university to mount and record radiation data from a crane used in port operations

• Developed SINRD detector with LANL for testing by IAEA

• Developed the SHIELD framework to interdict HEU at borders

• Developed PRAETOR tool and latency method for proliferation risk analysis

• GNEII program cited by White House as the 5th most important US science and technology activity in the Middle East

• Methodology for determining which states will go nuclear

• Int’l. research and education: India, Russa, Switzerland, UAE, England

FAC

ULT

Y/R

ESEA

RC

H

Overview Preparation Experience Career Path

Employment

email: nuclear@tamu.edu

http://engineering.tamu.edu/nuclear

Call: 979.845.4161