Cross-Section Measurements for Novel Medical Radionuclides at UCB/LBNL: The Challenge of “Simple” Experiments

voyles
SPEAKER:
ANDREW VOYLES
PH.D. CANDIDATE, NUCLEAR ENGINEERING
DATE/TIME:
MON, 02/12/2018 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM
LOCATION:
3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL
Spring 2018 Colloquium Series
Abstract:

The future of nuclear medicine would appear to be the paradigm of personalized medicine — targeted radionuclide therapy to spare healthy tissue, and theranostic medicine, which pairs an imaging isotope with a therapeutic isotope to provide simultaneous, real-time dose delivery and verification, leading to drastic reductions in prescribed patient dose. Candidate isotopes to meet these needs have been identified based on their chemical and radioactive decay properties, and the Bay Area Nuclear Data (BAND) Group is currently leading a series of campaigns to perform targeted, high-priority measurements of thin-target cross sections and thick-target integral yields. These studies will serve to facilitate the production of pre-clinical quantities of radioactivity for emerging and novel medical radionuclides. This talk will focus on the BAND Group's recent efforts to measure production cross sections for emerging medical radionuclides, develop new methods for the monitoring of charged-particle beams, and characterize tunable quasi-monoenergetic neutron sources for high specific activity isotope production.  Along the way, we'll learn how a wide array of students have been integrated into key roles in these developments, and how the assortment of unexpected difficulties in precision nuclear data measurements can make "simple" experiments not so simple, after all.

About the Speaker:

Mr. Voyles received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering (2013)  from the University of Utah, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. In his time at Berkeley, Mr. Voyles has led a number of efforts to develop novel medical radionuclides for pre-clinical studies, and can be found sailing the San Francisco Bay or brewing a variety of beverages in his free time.

Thermal Hydraulics for Material Mechanics: An Integrated Approach to Studying Nuclear Fuel and Reactor Safety

YouhoLee
SPEAKER:
YOUHO LEE

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

DEPARTMENT OF NUCLEAR ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO

DATE/TIME:
MON, 02/05/2018 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM
LOCATION:
3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL
Spring 2018 Colloquium Series
Abstract:

In this seminar, an overview of the key technical challenges to nuclear fuel and reactor safety research that benefits from integrating thermal hydraulics and material mechanics will be presented. An in-depth discussion will ensue on the development of ultra-thermal shock tolerant material by controlling surface heat transfer, boiling-induced stresses, advanced instrumentation for pebble heat transfer, and machine-learning aided nuclear accident diagnosis; and the potential of this approach for creating new perspectives and solutions to modernizing nuclear reactor engineering.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Youho Lee joined the University of New Mexico (UNM) in September 2016 as an assistant professor in the Nuclear Engineering Department. Dr. Lee is a nuclear engineer studying various solid-fluid interface phenomena in extreme environments by integrating thermal hydraulics and material mechanics. His research interests include thermal hydraulics-mechanics coupled studies on reactor safety, reactor thermal hydraulics, nuclear fuel mechanical modelling and design, and machine learning aided accident diagnosis. Dr. Lee received a B.S. from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 2009, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2011 and 2013, respectively. Prior to joining UNM, he served as a postdoctoral research fellow at KAIST. He was awarded the best paper in the division of fuel and materials at the 2014 Korean Nuclear Society Conference.