Faculty News

September 29, 2023

Karl van Bibber Group Awarded 5-Year U.S. Department of Energy Grant

September 29, 2023

The group of professor Karl van Bibber has been awarded a $1.1M grant for five years from the Department of Energy, for the proposal "Innovative metamaterials and quantum amplifiers for very high mass dark matter axion searches". This work supports research and development of novel microwave resonators of metallic or dielectric microstructures whose plasma frequency can be engineered and tuned. The development of such devices would open up the possibility of experiments searching for the dark matter of the universe in the form of a very light hypothetical particle, the axion which can resonantly convert to a weak radio signal in a strong magnetic field. Berkeley's partners in the proposal, a group at the University of Colorado led by Konrad Lehnert will also receive $1.1M for R&D on innovative quantum amplifiers and quantum acceleration schemes at very high frequencies.

September 29, 2023

The not so secret guide to being a Berkeley Engineer

September 19th, 2023

On this week's episode of The (Not So) Secret Guide to Being a Berkeley Engineer our own NE Professor Bethany L. Goldblum gives advice alongside other amazing Berkeley Engineering professors to students.

If you want to learn how to gain the most out of your first semester at Berkeley and the best resources on campus, listen to the podcast episode.

To learn more click the link: https://engineering.berkeley.edu/podcast/ess-716-tips-from-berkeley-engineering-faculty/

July 28, 2023July 28, 2023

New Department Chair Announcement: Max Fratoni

New Department Chair Announcement: Massimiliano Fratoni

July 1, 2023

The UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Department is pleased to announce our new department chair Massimiliano Fratoni.

Massimiliano Fratoni is Xenel Distinguished Associate Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB).

He received a Laurea in Nuclear Engineering from Sapienza Università di Roma (Italy), and a MSc and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.

Prior to joining the Nuclear Engineering Department at UCB, he held a Research Scientist position at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a faculty position at The Pennsylvania State University.

Prof. Fratoni’s main research interests are in sustainable nuclear energy through advanced reactors and advanced fuel cycles that maximize natural resource utilization and minimize nuclear waste. During his career, Prof. Fratoni has worked on several advanced reactor concepts including molten salt reactors, both solid and liquid fuel, sodium and lead cooled fast reactors, reduced moderation boiling water reactors, accident tolerant fuel and fusion reactors. He also worked on machine learning application in nuclear data and waste repository performance.

July 5, 2023

New Faculty Announcement: Bethany Goldblum

July 1st, 2023

The UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Department is pleased to announce new faculty member Dr. Bethany L. Goldblum. She joins the department as an Associate Professor in Fall 2023.

Goldblum is a Faculty Scientist in the Nuclear Science Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She is also Executive Director of the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium, a multi-institution initiative established by the National Nuclear Security Administration to train the next generation of nuclear security experts. Her research explores fundamental and applied nuclear physics, proliferation detection, and nuclear weapons policy. Goldblum leads the Bay Area Neutron Group, a research team focused on neutron detection for nuclear security applications, and founded and directs the Nuclear Policy Working Group, an interdisciplinary team of scholars developing policy solutions to strengthen global nuclear security. She has been involved with the Public Policy and Nuclear Threats Boot Camp nearly since its inception, and acted as director of the program since 2014. She is the author of more than 100 publications on nuclear science and policy issues and recipient of the 2020 James Corones Award in Leadership, Community Building, and Communication. Goldblum received a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

June 28, 2023July 28, 2023

NRC Completes Safety Review of Construction Permit Application For Kairos Test Reactor in Tennessee

June 15th, 2023

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued its Final Safety Evaluation Report for the Construction Permit Application for the Kairos Power Hermes Demonstration Reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee three months ahead of schedule. Read the NRC briefing.

UC Berkeley, along with MIT and UW Madison, played a central role in studying how to design and license FHRs.

September 21, 2022September 21, 2022

Peter Hosemann Lead PI of a New Fusion Energy Science Award

September 21st, 2022

Professor Peter Hosemann is the lead PI of a new Fusion Energy Science award entitled "Measuring, Modeling and Managing Radiation Effects in High Helium Fusion Relevant Environments" in collaboration between UCB and UCSB. The team will investigate structural material for fusion applications in the years to come. The coupled extremes of radiation, stress, temperature pose a unique challenge in realizing fusion power. The focus will be in understanding the materials degradation mechanism and enhance predictive capabilities for materials in fusion applications. Small scale mechanical testing coupled with microstructural analysis and modeling on ion beam and neutron irradiated materials will be a core element of the work.

July 29, 2022

Kairos Power Commissions Fluoride Salt Purification Plant

July 20th, 2022

Kairos Power in conjunction with Materion Corporation, designed a molten salt purification plant that has just been commissioned at Materion’s campus in Ohio because Kairos Power requires a source of high-purity fluoride salt for testing in its molten salt reactor design, as well as to serve as the coolant in its grid-scale fluoride salt–cooled, high-temperature reactor.

Find out more here.

July 8, 2022September 9, 2022

Professors Abergel, Fratoni, Hosemann Receive U.S. Department of Energy NEUP Grants

Professors Abergel, Fratoni, Hosemann Received U.S. Department of Energy NEUP Grants

June 17th, 2022

The Nuclear Engineering department received DOE Nuclear Energy related research awards of 4.7M$ as a lead institution and further funding as a collaborating institution. These funds will support several different research programs.

The Integrated Research Program lead by Professor Fratoni entitled "Bridging the gap between experiments and modeling
to improve the design of molten salt reactors".

The NEUP lead by Professor Abergel entitled "Advanced Screening Approaches for Accelerating Development of
Separations Technologies".

The NEUP lead by Professor Hosemann "High throughput mechanical testing of additively-manufactured materials" will utilize femto second laser ablation in combination with the automated microscale tensile tester to evaluate additive manufactured materials and generate data for quality control and ML approaches together with microstructure analysis.

The NEUP lead by Professor Hosemann "Science-Based Development of ASTM standard tests for graphite-based fuel pebbles" together with X-energy, ORNL and the University of Florida, will use conventional methods and develop new methods to obtain a fundamental understanding of the failure modes in pebble fuels during use and to quantify the failure rate to proctor quality control and predict performance.

Find out more here.

July 8, 2022July 13, 2022

Per Peterson Awarded the ANS Walter Zinn Medal

June 9th, 2022

Professor Per Peterson has been awarded the 2022 American Nuclear Society's Walter H. Zinn Medal in recognition of "his contributions to the development of technologies for passive safety in nuclear reactors, and his leadership to develop and commercialize fluoride salt–cooled high-temperature reactors".

The Walter H. Zinn Medal recognizes an individual for outstanding contributions to the advancement or implementation of nuclear technology. This award is to recognize notable and sustained technical contribution, leadership, or other service that has not been widely recognized, and is considered one of highest honors ANS has to give.

Find out more here.

Congratulations Professor Peterson!

April 14, 2022July 13, 2022

Kairos Power receives 2022 BloombergNEF Pioneer Award

April 14th, 2022

BloombergNEF has announced its twelve winners of the 2022 BNEF Pioneers program, including Department of Nuclear Engineering professor Per Peterson and alumni Mike Laufer and their team at Kairos Power. Kairos Power was recognized for its "novel advanced nuclear reactor technology to complement renewable energy sources". For over a decade, this program has sought to identify and highlight technological innovations that accelerate global decarbonization and halt climate change.

You can read more about this achievement here.