March 2017

March 20, 2017January 9, 2019

Atoms for Humanity: The Heroic Journey of Nuclear Power

SPEAKER:

MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER

PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRESS

DATE/TIME:

MON, 03/20/2017 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Spring 2017 Colloquium Series

About the Speaker:

Michael Shellenberger is an award-winning author and environmental policy expert. For a quarter-century he has advocated solutions to lift all people out of poverty while lessening humankind's environmental impact. Michael is coauthor of visionary books and essays including "The Death of Environmentalism," Break Through, An Ecomodernist Manifesto, "Evolve," and Love Your Monsters. He writes for publications including Scientific American, The New York Times, and the Washington Post. Michael is a passionate advocate of the right of poor nations to develop and is a leading pro-nuclear environmentalist. His research, writings and talks challenge the idea that rising energy consumption is bad for the environment. Michael has made the intertwined moral and scientific case for energy justice in "An Ecomodernist Manifesto," written with 17 other leading scholars and scientists, in "Why Energy Transitions are the Key to Environmental Progress," coauthored with Rachel Pritzker, and a TEDx talk, "How Humans Save Nature."

March 13, 2017January 9, 2019

The Accidental Engineer: A Physicist’s Walk on the Dark Side

SPEAKER:

KARL VAN BIBBER

PROFESSOR AND CHAIR

DEPARTMENT OF NUCLEAR ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

DATE/TIME:

MON, 03/13/2017 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Spring 2017 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

In just a few short decades, the universe we really know about and call home has been demoted to a mere 4% of the total energy density of the cosmos. What constitutes the remaining 96% is one of the premier questions in all of science today. This colloquium will present the evidence for the ubiquitous dark matter that accounts for a third of that, and a brief motivation for a front-running candidate, the axion. Berkeley is playing a major role in two of the leading experiments in the world to find it; fusion engineering played a brief, amusing and serendipitous role in catalyzing what has become a global campaign of axion research today.

About the Speaker:

Karl van Bibber received his BS and PhD from MIT in experimental nuclear physics. After postdoctoral work at LBNL, he served as an Assistant Professor of Physics at Stanford. He joined LLNL where he founded and led the High Energy Physics and Accelerator Technology Group, and was LLNL Project Leader for construction of the SLAC-LBNL-LLNL PEP-II B Factory project. His institutional service includes positions as Chief Scientist for the Physics and Space Technology directorate, and Deputy Director of the Laboratory Science and Technology Office. In 2009 he became Vice President and Dean of Research of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. In 2012 he joined the faculty of UC Berkeley as Professor of Nuclear Engineering, and acceded to Department Chair in July 2012. He also serves as Executive Director of the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium, a DOE Office of Non-Proliferation center-of-excellence comprised of eight universities and five national laboratories. His research focuses on basic and applied nuclear science, particle astrophysics, and accelerator science and technology. He is the recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the DOE Deputy Secretary Award for the B Factory, and the Navy Superior Civilian Service Award for the establishment of degree and executive education programs in Energy, the first within the DoD. He is a fellow of the APS and AAAS.

March 6, 2017January 9, 2019

Tandem Mirror Fusion Reactors Burning Advanced Fuels

SPEAKER:

PROFESSOR T. KENNETH FOWLER

PROFESSOR EMERITUS

DEPARTMENT OF NUCLEAR ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

DATE/TIME:

MON, 03/06/2017 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Spring 2017 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

Advances in superconducting magnet technology and new results at Novosibirsk point the way to improved tandem mirror fusion reactors burning a variety of fuels –- pure DD, D³He, p ¹¹B -- none of which require the breeding of tritium. Inspired by the demonstration at Novosibirsk of stable plasmas confined by simple circular magnetic mirrors, Richard F. Post at Livermore invented the kinetically-stabilized tandem mirror that is conceptually much simpler than tokamaks. In this talk, we show how electron cyclotron heating, also demonstrated at Novosibirsk, can increase plasma temperatures to the billion degree (100 KeV) range at which a variety of light elements undergo fusion.

About the Speaker:

T. Kenneth Fowler is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1987, and is a member of Section 31, Engineering Sciences. He is also Fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology that advises the Governor and Legislature on science important to the State.

Dr. Fowler received his BE in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1953, MS in physics from Vanderbilt in 1955, and Ph. D. in theoretical physics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1957.

Before joining the Berkeley faculty in 1988, he spent thirty years in fusion energy research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, at General Atomics, and finally at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he served as an Associate Director of the Laboratory and head of magnetic fusion energy research from 1970 to 1987. During 1987-1988, he was U. S. Representative on the Working Group that initiated the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor now under construction in France.

He has served on numerous governmental and academic committees and served as Chair of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Berkeley from 1988 to 1994. He has published more than 100 research papers on plasmas, nuclear physics, nuclear energy and related topics. He is author of The Fusion Quest, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press in 1997. He was co-inventor of the tandem mirror concept, and served on the Board of Directors of Titan Corporation.

His honors include the Distinguished Service Citation from the University of Wisconsin in 1981 and the Berkeley Citation in 1995.