Month: October 2016

SPEAKER:
KRAMPUS

DEMON, SEVENTH GATE, HELL

DATE/TIME:
MON, 10/31/2016 – 4:00PM TO 5:00PM
LOCATION:
3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL
Fall 2016 Colloquium Series
Abstract:

It is Halloween; clowns, villains, demons and devils are on the streets asking for treats. We all have our idea of fear and horror, however many materials are born in a truly hellish environment, moving through 6 gates of hell just to enter through the seventh gate into “Nuclear Application”. Understanding materials behavior and components utilized in engineering applications requires understanding of how materials are manufactured. Krampus and his demon friends are going to present how the most common engineering metal, steel, is made from ore to product and how steels are tortured in their final application.

About the Speaker:

Krampus is a horned, anthropomorphic figure described as “half-goat, half-demon”, who, during the Christmas season, punishes children who have misbehaved, in contrast with Saint Nicholas, who rewards the well-behaved with gifts. In traditional parades and in such events as the Krampuslauf (English: Krampus run), young men dressed as Krampus participate; such events occur annually in most Alpine towns.  Because he is only committed to terrorizing children in the month of December, Krampus spends the rest of the year studying materials science.  The ultimate goal of his research is to eventually break free from the chains of hell.

SPEAKER:
PROFESSOR RACHEL SLAYBAUGH

DEPARTMENT OF NUCLEAR ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

DATE/TIME:
MON, 10/24/2016 – 4:00PM TO 5:00PM
LOCATION:
3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL
Fall 2016 Colloquium Series
Abstract:

Rachel Slaybaugh is an assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Slaybaugh received a BS in nuclear engineering from Penn State in 2006 where she served as a licensed nuclear reactor operator. She went on to the University of Wisconsin–Madison to earn an MS in 2008 and a PhD in 2011 in nuclear engineering and engineering physics along with a certificate in energy analysis and policy. Throughout her career, Slaybaugh has been engaged in computational science, educational outreach, starting an absurd number of student organizations, attending far too many conferences, and also having fun. Fun includes things like travel (she backpacked in central america for 3 months after getting a PhD), cooking and baking (because weird health food is the best), exercise (yoga, biking, climbing, etc.), and attending Burning Man. Beyond that, she lives in West Oakland on purpose.

SPEAKER:
PROFESSOR WILLIAM E. KASTENBERG

DANIEL M. TELLEP DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF ENGINEERING, EMERITUS

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

DATE/TIME:
MON, 10/17/2016 – 4:00PM TO 5:00PM
LOCATION:
3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL
Fall 2016 Colloquium Series
Abstract:

Ethics, risk and safety are three key aspects of nuclear science and engineering that occur in the pursuit of energy, the detection, treatment and cure of illness, and the need for national security. Professor Ahn, ruminating about the changes in nuclear engineering that took place during his career, raised the questions, “What is a nuclear engineer?” and “What makes a Berkeley Nuclear Engineer different?”  In this presentation, I will attempt to provide my own answers from the perspective of ethics, risk and safety.

In particular, I will discuss how our understanding of ethics, risk and safety has changed during the past half-century or so, and how they might change again in the future.  In the presentation, I will draw on examples from the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, from considerations of high-level radioactive waste disposal and from national security; three issues that Professor Ahn was concerned with during his productive and innovative career.

About the Speaker:

Professor Kastenberg’s teaching and research interests include science and engineering ethics, risk analysis and nuclear reactor safety. He is currently the Principle Investigator for an NSF Grant entitled: Making Ethics Explicit: Relocating Ethics to the Core of Engineering Education. Dr. Kastenberg is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the AAAS and the ANS. More recently, he has been lecturing and writing on the interplay of safety culture and societal culture, and the interplay of cognition and emotion on science and engineering ethics education.

SPEAKER:
PROFESSOR EDWARD C. MORSE

PROFESSOR

NUCLEAR ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

DATE/TIME:
MON, 10/10/2016 – 4:00PM TO 5:00PM
LOCATION:
3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL
Fall 2016 Colloquium Series
Abstract:

Approaching Forty…Years on the faculty of the Nuclear Engineering Department, that is. A great deal has changed since this time in 1978 when I was appointed as an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley at age 22.  The world’s enthusiasm for nuclear energy was dampened the following March with the Three Mile Island (TMI) accident in Pennsylvania. Fusion energy was in an enormous growth phase, with a $380 million experiment underway at Livermore, and an even bigger one at Princeton. The first Cray-I was installed at Livermore in 1978 and it was a single processor 80 megaflop machine. I worked on building microwave sources, negative ion sources, and started a compact toroid magnetic fusion experiment in the 1980s. Just as public opinion for nuclear  was getting over TMI, we had the Chernobyl accident in 1986.  In the 1990s, the National Ignition Facility laser fusion project started, and I brought in the Rotating Target Neutron Source (RTNS) from Livermore and used it to irradiate NIF concrete samples, detectors, and to get cross section data relevant to India’s claims of thermonuclear weapon development.  September 11, 2001 saw the growth of interest in nuclear terrorism, and I ran a large project called DoNuTS (for Domestic Nuclear Threat Security)  from 2007 to 2013. I became interested in nuclear resonance fluorescence and nuclear forensics. March  2011 focused everyone on  fission reactor safety (again!) with Fukushima, and I had a fair share of media outreach. At this time, the fastest computer in the world is from China (93 petaflops),  North Korea has working nuclear explosives and has put satellites in orbit, the ITER fusion machine won’t have plasma until 2025, and California won’t have any nuclear power after 2025.  Now that we have cleared this up, I will tell everyone why it’s  so important to have really good nuclear engineers coming out of Berkeley.

SPEAKER:
DR. WESLEY FREY

FACILITY DIRECTOR, UC DAVIS MCCLELLAN NUCLEAR RESEARCH CENTER 

DATE/TIME:
MON, 10/03/2016 – 4:00PM TO 5:00PM
LOCATION:
3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL
Fall 2016 Colloquium Series
Abstract:

The McClellan Nuclear Research Center (MNRC) is home to a 2.0 MegaWatt Training Research Isotope built by General Atomic (TRIGA) nuclear reactor.  The reactor is the newest research reactor in the United States and is the third most powerful (tie) university operated research reactor in the country.  The facility was originally built by the US Air Force to conduct neutron radiography on airplanes and is located 10 miles north of downtown Sacramento.  The operation of a research reactor in the 21st century is fraught with challenges as the reactors must operate under strict federal guidelines and public scrutiny.   At the same time the facility must meet the short term needs and long term vision of the University.  Discussed topics will include the supply of new nuclear fuel, disposing of spent nuclear fuel, relicensing the reactor, aging workforce, aging equipment, and planning for eventual decommissioning.  Lastly, potential research and educational opportunities available to UC Berkeley nuclear engineering students at the MNRC will be discussed.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Wesley Frey is a California native who graduated from the UC Berkeley nuclear engineering program with a BS in 2001.  After his undergraduate education, Dr. Frey completed his PhD at Oregon State University.  Dr. Frey remained at Oregon State University for a number of years after graduating as a faculty instructor in radiation health physics.  After this he returned to California to work as a health physicist at the Stanford Linear Accelerator to develop measurement methodologies to release metals from areas where neutrons had been present, in spite of the DOE metal recycling moratorium.  Upon leaving Stanford he joined the UC Davis McClellan Nuclear Research Center as the Radiation Safety Officer and has since assumed the role of facility director.  His educational interests include the teaching of health physics and beginning a reactor operator training program for university students.  His research interests include radioactive isotope production, neutron activation analysis, and radiological measurements made for decommissioning and decontamination purposes.  Dr. Frey is a board certified health physicist.