Lydia M. Liu, BA

October 15, 2018January 10, 2019

Evolution of the US-India Civilian Nuclear Agreement: Interplay among Science, Policy, Politics and Diplomacy

SPEAKER:

SATISH V. KULKARNI, PH.D.

VIRGINIA TECH

DATE/TIME:

MON, 10/15/2018 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2018 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

Today, the US – India relationship is rooted in shared values and is broad in nature and scope, with the two countries working together on the Indo-Pacific strategic partnership encompassing global and energy security, life sciences and public health, economic prosperity and trade, and education. A key outcome of this partnership has been the signing of the historic Indo-US Civilian Nuclear Agreement. While these steps take the engagement between the two democracies to new heights, acting as a damper especially during the cold war days and even today, the relationship has been plagued by sanctions and the resulting tensions and mistrust. In this context, the Civilian Nuclear Agreement and several other bilateral agreements will be discussed.

About the Speaker:

After spending 26 years at LLNL, his most recent assignment being Division Leader of New Technologies (formerly Nuclear Test) Engineering Division, Dr. Kulkarni was deputed from LLNL in 2004 as Executive Director, Laboratory Management in the University of California Office of the President. Subsequently, in 2006 he was selected to serve as the Counselor for Science, Technology, Environment and Health Affairs at the Embassy of the United States of America in New Delhi, India with the Department of State as a Limited-Term Foreign Service Officer. In 2009, he joined Georgetown University as Associate VP for New Initiatives and Partnerships, and later in 2011 he was appointed Director of Energy Initiatives at Virginia Tech and concurrently, Research Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and Affiliate Professor of Nuclear Engineering Program. At Virginia Tech, he developed and taught two graduate courses: “S&T and Policy, Their Interplay” and “Sustainable Innovation”, and organized and chaired the Forum on “Nuclear Regimes: Future Outlook” in 2012. He retired in 2014 and returned home to San Ramon CA.

In 2009 he was inducted into the Academy of Engineering Excellence at Virginia Tech for ‘meritorious lifetime achievements and contributions to the engineering profession’ and appointed to serve as member of its College of Engineering Advisory Board. In 2012, he received the Graduate Alumni Achievement Award during the Commencement at Virginia Tech for ‘establishing an exemplary record of innovative scientific, educational, and policy leadership in national and international arenas’.

October 12, 2018January 10, 2019

Nuclear energy challenges in Europe and the transmutation promise

SPEAKER:

DR. CONCETTA FAZIO

DEPUTY HEAD OF THE NUCLEAR FUEL SAFETY UNIT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE (JRC)

DATE/TIME:

FRI, 10/12/2018 - 11:00AM TO 12:00PM

LOCATION:

3111 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2018 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

The European Commission plays an important role in shaping European energy policies and providing science-based results as generated by the Joint Research Centre (JRC). At JRC nuclear research is performed in all relevant key areas including nuclear waste transmutation. In this seminar current research programs and preliminary results of minor Actinides bearing fuels and their
claddings will be addressed in terms of design requirements, basic properties assessment and validation. The importance, status and future perspectives of irradiation facilities to investigate appropriate boundary conditions as defined by the requirements are also included. Finally, societal impacts on nuclear energy research, an aspect that is becoming more and more important in the European will be discussed as an outcome of a specific study performed.

About the Speaker:

Concetta Fazio is deputy Head of the Nuclear Fuel Safety Unit of the European Commission JRC. After getting her PhD in Metallurgical Engineering at the Politecnico of Turin, she has started her research work at the Italian Research Centre ENEA on materials studies for fusion devices, accelerator driven systems and concentrated solar power. Successively, she moved to the German Research Institution KIT, where she was in charge both of the “Partitioning and Transmutation” and “Safety of New Nuclear Systems” programs. At JRC after a first period spent on defining Nuclear Education and Training programs for MSc and PhD students and professional development, she became scientific assistant to the director of the JRC directorate on nuclear safety and security.

October 1, 2018January 10, 2019

Creating, Diagnosing, and Controlling High Energy Density Matter with the National Ignition Facility

SPEAKER:

MARK HERRMANN

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY

DATE/TIME:

MON, 10/01/2018 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2018 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

The National Ignition Facility (NIF), at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is the world’s largest laser. NIF houses 192 beams that can deliver over 1.8 MJ of ultraviolet energy and peak powers of 500 TW to a small target (<< cm³). The deposition of this energy in a small volume creates extreme radiation environments and large pressures in materials. These very large pressures have been used to create unique conditions for studying the behavior of matter at high energy densities (high energy density matter can be defined as having pressures greater than 1,000,000 times atmospheric pressure). Understanding the behavior of matter at high energy densities is important for our national security, many astrophysical questions, and obtaining inertial confinement fusion ignition. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the National Ignition Facility and some of the technology that enables it, discuss recent progress in high energy density science and inertial confinement fusion, and talk about the challenges and opportunities for future research.

This work is performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Mark Herrmann is the director of the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world’s most energetic laser, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). NIF is a key experimental facility for the science based Stockpile Stewardship Program. Previously, Dr. Herrmann spent 9 years at Sandia National Laboratories, where he studied the use of large magnetic fields generated by the Z facility to create and control high energy density matter. While at Sandia, he held a number of positions, including Director of the Pulsed Power Sciences Center. He began his career as a physicist at LLNL, where his research focused on inertial confinement fusion and high energy density science. He has been awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the American Physical Society Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Plasma Physics, and the Fusion Power Associates Excellence in Fusion Engineering Award. Mark is a fellow of the American Physical Society. He received his undergraduate degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, and his Ph.D. from the Program in Plasma Physics at Princeton University.

September 24, 2018January 10, 2019

ENDF/B-VIII.0

SPEAKER:

DR. DAVID BROWN

SCIENTIST (S4)

DATE/TIME:

MON, 09/24/2018 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2018 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

The Cross Section Evaluation Working Group (CSEWG) released the ENDF/B-VIII.0 evaluated nuclear reaction data library on February 2, 2018. ENDF/B-VIII.0 incorporates many improvements including a nearly completely new thermal neutron scattering sublibrary, the new IAEA standards, and the CIELO project evaluations for neutron reactions on 16O, 56Fe, 235U, 238U and 239Pu. These evaluations are a direct result of improvements in theory and simulation and benefit from recent experimental data obtained in the U.S. and Europe. In this talk, I will highlight the most important changes in ENDF/B-VIII.0 that impact reactor and shielding applications.

About the Speaker:

Dr. David Brown is a senior scientist at the National Nuclear Data Center at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Dr. Brown is the ENDF Library Manager, coordinated the release of the ENDF/B-VIII.0 library in Feb. 2018 and developed the ADVANCE continuous integration system for nuclear data quality assurance. Dr. Brown’s current research focuses on elastic and inelastic scattering at the interfaces between the resolved resonance, unresolved resonance and fast energy regions in structural materials. He is active in several NEA Working Parties on Evaluation Cooperation (WPEC) including EG-GNDS which coordinates the GNDS format (the format to succeed the ENDF-6 format). Before moving to BNL, Dr. Brown was a staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he led the ENDL nuclear data library effort and began his work as a co-developer of the FUDGE nuclear data processing system. Dr. Brown is a trained high energy nuclear physicist who has dabbled in non-equilibrium quantum field theory and the use of entangled hadron pairs to image nuclear reaction zones at the RHIC and LHC.

September 17, 2018January 10, 2019

The Swelling Equation is a Four Dimensional Animal

SPEAKER:

MICHAEL FLUSS

VISITING SCIENTIST UCB-NE

DATE/TIME:

MON, 09/17/2018 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2018 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

Nuclear Energy Material Scientists have been searching for the bias driven swelling equation for over 50 years. While the theoretical basis for the swelling equation was described 45 years ago utilizing mean-field (rate) theory, the animal itself has managed to hide from experimentalists. Foster and Flinn attempted to trap the animal but were only able to capture an empirical version of the beast. About 10 years ago Kalchenko and co-workers set out to track the beast by following its swelling curve as a function of dpa-rate—and they found it—an experimental method fully consistent with rate theory that allows for a swelling equation valid from 10**-2 to 10**-8 dpa/s. Full domestication of the beast remains a challenge.

About the Speaker:

Michael Fluss holds a B.S. from Rutgers University and a PhD in Nuclear Chemistry from Columbia University. His career spans experimental research in nuclear reaction physics, dosimetry, radiation damage in semiconductors and metals, and solid-state physics. Currently he is a visiting scientist in the Nuclear Energy Department at Berkeley with a focus on accelerated testing of nuclear materials and the fundamental aspects of non-equilibrium radiation environments.

September 10, 2018January 10, 2019

Translating high-resolution radiation detection technology to head-and-neck imaging (design, instrumentation, and performance)

SPEAKER:

SHIVA ABBASZADEH

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, DEPARTMENT OF NUCLEAR, PLASMA, AND RADIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING

DATE/TIME:

MON, 09/10/2018 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2018 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

Current head and neck cancer diagnosis and treatment planning suffers from poor spatial resolution of whole-body positron emission tomography (WB-PET) scans. In the neck, where tissue layers are thin, the spatial resolution of WB-PET (4-6 mm) is not sufficient to evaluate small lymph nodes (<5 mm), establish how far the tumor has invaded locally, and guide the decision to resect a tumor rather than irradiate and deliver chemotherapy. In this talk I will introduce PET imaging and discuss how to address this problem by translating high-resolution radiation detection technology to head and neck imaging. Then I will discuss the development of a PET system based on cadmium zinc telluride detector technology. System characterization and methods to improve sensitivity will also be discussed.

About the Speaker:

Shiva Abbaszadeh is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering. She was previously a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Radiology at Stanford University and received her PhD in ECE at the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada). Her research interests include radiation detection and instrumentation for molecular imaging, computational problem solving, and quantitative characterization of biological processes. Shiva is a member of IEEE and SPIE and has received a number of awards for her work on medical imaging technology (Mitacs Elevate Fellowship, SPIE Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship, and the NIH-sponsored Stanford SMIS T32 award).

August 27, 2018January 10, 2019

Lessons learned from severe accidents in nuclear reactors

SPEAKER:

GARY JOHNSON

DATE/TIME:

MON, 08/27/2018 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2018 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) defines severe accidents as “Accident conditions more severe than a design basis accident and involving significant core degradation”. Fukushima-Daiichi, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island are well known examples, but there have actually been at least 19 such accidents. The speaker has researched and summarized these events for the IAEA and in a report for the Electric Power Research Institute. This talk will give a short overview of these severe accidents and lessons learned..

About the Speaker:

Gary Johnson is an Independent Consultant (i.e., a retired guy who refuses to quit). His career included stents with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Portland General Electric Company, and the US Department of Energy, not to mention a short time as a visiting scholar in Berkeley’s Nuclear Engineering Department. Most of his work focused on the safety of nuclear power plants and plant instrumentation and control. He is still actively supporting IAEA training for newcomer countries, and the development of technical studies and standards for the IAEA, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Nuclear Power Engineering Society, the International Electrotechnical Commission Subcommittee on Nuclear Facility Instrument, Control, and Electrical systems, the World Nuclear Association, and ANS.

December 8, 2014January 28, 2019

The Challenge of Peace: Public Opinion, the Reagan Administration, and the Movement to Freeze the Arms Race

SPEAKER:

HENRY MAAR

PH.D. CANDIDATE
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, UCSB

DATE/TIME:

MON, 12/08/2014 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2014 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

This talk explores the role of public opinion and social-protest through a case-study of the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign of the 1980s. The Freeze campaign grew in parallel to the onset of the administration of Ronald Reagan and an increasingly tense Cold War, responding with a simple and easy solution to the escalating arms race: a bilateral freeze on the production, deployment, and testing of nuclear weapons. The campaign soon spread across American society, influencing Just War and pro-life debates among Catholic Bishops, becoming a theme within popular movies, television shows, and music, and receiving bipartisan support within the Congress. Drawing extensively on newly declassified documents from the archives of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, memoirs of Reagan administration officials, Freeze activists, and extensive media sources, this talk argues the Reagan administration was forced to co-opt the antinuclear message emanating from the Freeze campaign, or else continue to face a growing backlash with potential electoral repercussions.

About the Speaker:

Henry Maar is a Ph.D. candidate in the History Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on the role of public opinion and movements of social-protest in the shaping of American foreign policy. His dissertation, “The Challenge of Peace: Public Opinion, the Reagan Administration, and the Movement to Freeze the Arms Race,” uses newly declassified documents from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to assess the influence of the Nuclear Freeze movement on American foreign policy and the Cold War. He is completing his Ph.D. with the support of a Nuclear Security Dissertation Fellowship from the UC Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC).

December 1, 2014January 28, 2019

Quantifying Uncertainty in Nuclear and Cross Section Data

SPEAKER:

MORGAN WHITE, PH.D.

LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY

DATE/TIME:

MON, 12/01/2014 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2014 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

For the last five years, the nuclear data community within NNSA has been rallied around the goal of understanding the neutronic properties of plutonium-239. Unfortunately, it is a difficult problem and we are not there yet. In fact, we have taken the problem global and engaged the broader international community [CIELO, NDS V118 p1] in helping tackle these challenging issues. But that is a story for a different day. In the meantime, this intense study has paid off in the form of many new insights in assessing the state of our knowledge. As these kinds of issues are more general than just our community, I hope that discussing them more broadly might help others in their search for solutions and all of us in pondering those unknown unknowns.

About the Speaker:

Morgan White joined the nuclear data team at LANL in X-division in 1998 as a summer student and has been part of that team ever since. As part of his doctoral thesis, Morgan implemented photo-nuclear physics in NJOY and MCNP to extend new capabilities to the radiation shielding community. Taking the advice start like you mean to continue, bringing better nuclear data and methods to users has been the focus of his work since. Morgan has been a part of developing the MCNP ACE data libraries ENDF60, LA150N, ENDF66, ACTI, ENDF70 and ENDF71 as well as many specialized libraries for specific applications. He has worked with Monte Carlo and deterministic neutronics codes as well as multi-physics applications to develop and implement extended capabilities in transport physics and tally capabilities. More recently, Morgan has crossed from simulations to the dark side and begun working with the experimental community to better understand and reduce the systematic errors in the fundamental data necessary for such simulations.

November 27, 2014January 28, 2019

Advanced Reactors Systems for Sustainable Nuclear Power

SPEAKER:

MARK DEINERT, PH.D.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

DATE/TIME:

MON, 11/17/2014 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2014 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

The environmental and geopolitical problems that are associated with nuclear power stem in part from the accumulation of the transuranics in used nuclear fuel. By limiting the production of these four elements many of the concerns that surround the future development of nuclear energy would be significantly reduced. This fact has been known within the nuclear engineering community for decades, and several methods for transmuting these transuranics into more benign forms have been proposed. Advanced recycle strategies that use conventional light-water reactors offer ways of achieving significant reductions in transuranics using conventional reactor systems. Breed-burn reactors offer a potential way to limiting transuranic production with the advantage they make very efficient use of uranium. I will discuss some of the work that we are currently doing on these systems in my group.

About the Speaker:

Mark Deinert is on the faculty in the Nuclear and Radiation Engineering program at The University of Texas at Austin. He completed a Ph.D. in Nuclear Science and Engineering at Cornell University, where he was also a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. His research is focused on several aspects of advanced nuclear fuel cycles and reactor designs that minimize environmental impacts. His recent work has appeared in the journals Geophysical Research Letters, Chaos, Energy Economics, the Journal of Applied Physics and it has been profiled in both Nature and Science.