Fall 2014 Colloquium Series

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.

November 24, 2014January 28, 2019

Superheavy Element Discovery and Chemistry at LLNL

SPEAKER:

DAWN SHAUGHNESSY, PH.D.

DEPUTY DIRECTOR,HEAVY ELEMENT DISCOVERY GROUP,
LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY

DATE/TIME:

MON, 11/24/2014 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2014 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

The heavy element group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has had a long tradition of nuclear and radiochemistry dating back to the 1950’s. Some of the most exciting work has taken place in the last decade (in collaboration with the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in Dubna, Russia) with the discovery of six new elements - 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, and 118. By pushing the boundaries of the periodic table, we can start to answer some of the most fundamental questions of nuclear science, such as the locations of the next “magic numbers” of protons and neutrons, and the possibility of an “Island of Stability” where nuclides would have lifetimes much longer than those currently observed in the heaviest elements. We have already seen evidence of extra-stability in the heaviest nuclides, which leads to half-lives that are long enough for us to perform chemistry on these isotopes one atom at a time. Work is underway on developing an automated chemical system that will be used for studying chemical properties of elements 104 and 105. New chemical separations are being studied that can be deployed using a multi-column automated system. These experiments will provide the ground work for performing aqueous chemistry later on even heavier elements such as element 114 where the chemical properties are completely unknown. In this overview the discovery of these new elements and the chemical experiments in progress will be discussed. This work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. This work was funded by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program at LLNL under project tracking code 11-ERD-011.

About the Speaker:

Dawn Shaughnessy received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in May of 1993. After graduating, she decided to remain at Berkeley and pursue a Ph.D. with a focus on nuclear chemistry. She joined the research group of Professor Darleane Hoffman and received a Ph.D. in 2000. Her research focused on the delayed fission properties of isotopes of einsteinium, which were produced at the 88-Inch Cyclotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. During her tenure at Berkeley, Dawn received an award as one of the top Graduate Student Instructors through the College of Chemistry. After finishing graduate school, Dawn began a postdoctoral appointment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the Chemical Sciences Division under Professor Heino Nitsche. Her research was the study of how plutonium interacts with naturally occurring manganese-bearing minerals as part of a DOE Environmental Management Project geared toward clean-up of nuclear materials in the environment. After completing her postdoc in 2002, she accepted a term position at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the Stockpile Radiochemistry Group. She has recently been appointed group leader for the newly created Experimental Nuclear and Radiochemistry Group, which is currently part of the Chemical Sciences Division at LLNL, and is also the Responsible Scientist for radiochemical debris collection at the National Ignition Facility. In addition, she is the project leader of the LLNL heavy element program, which announced discovery of element 117 in April of 2010. In May of 2012, it was also announced by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry that element 116 would be officially known as “livermorium”, an honor granted to the LLNL heavy element program in recognition of their years of research. Dawn’s general research interests include actinide and heavy element chemistry, chemical automation, nuclear forensics methods and radiochemical diagnostics. She has been a staff chemist at LLNL for 12 years. Most recently she was awarded the DOE Office of Science Outstanding Mentor Award (2010), the Gordon Battelle Prize for Scientific Discovery for the discovery of element 117 (2010), and was inducted into the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame for Scientific Discovery (2012).

November 14, 2014January 15, 2019

Kinetic analysis of criticality accident in weakly coupled fuel solution system

SPEAKER:

PROFESSOR TORU OBARA

PROFESSOR OF RESEARCH LABORATORY FOR NUCLEAR REACTORS, TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

DIRECTOR OF CENTER FOR RESEARCH INTO INNOVATIVE NUCLEAR ENERGY SYSTEMS (CRINES), TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

DATE/TIME:

FRI,

11/14/2014 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2014 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

In criticality accidents of fuel solutions, if there are several solution tanks located near the tank that becomes super-critical, the total released energy can be larger than that involving just one tank, because of the neutron interaction between the tanks. Thus, it is important to perform transient analysis in such cases by taking into account the neutron interaction between the tanks. A kinetic analysis code based on an integral kinetic model was developed and applied to the kinetic analysis of criticality accidents in a weakly coupled system. If it is possible to know the total energy release in a compound accident compared to an accident in a single solution tank, this would be useful for the protection against radiation in such accidents. The methodology to predict the total energy is shown in criticality accidents involving several fuel solution tanks from the knowledge of how much energy is released in a single solution tank using the integral kinetic model.

November 14, 2014January 15, 2019

Safety Countermeasure of Onagawa NPS after the Great East-Japan Earthquake, and the current situation of nuclear power in Japan

SPEAKER:

AKIYOSHI OBONAI

TOHOKU ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY

DATE/TIME:

MON, 11/14/2014 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

180 DOE LIBRARY

Fall 2014 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

On, March 11, a massive earthquake occurred at 2:46 p.m. Japan standard time, and the epicenter was about 130km off the Pacific Ocean from the Oshika peninsula where Onagawa NPS is located.

First, I would like to talk about what happened at Onagawa Nuclear Power Station (NPS), and how we managed the plant in order to reach a cold shut down.

Next I would like to talk about the safety countermeasure after 3/11, learning the lesson from Onagawa and Fukushima. We conducted the detailed evaluation of 3/11/’11 earthquakes and tsunamis. Based on this evaluation, we have been conducting further seismic reinforcement and constructing high levee (about 29m above sea level). In addition, we are making safety upgrades for severe accident, i.e. Filtered Containment Vessel System, and alternative decay heat removable system.

Finally, I would like to talk about the current situation of nuclear power in Japan. For example, government policy, people’s attitude toward nuclear power, and the circumstance for restarting nuclear power station.

About the Speaker:

Akiyoshi Obonai received his masters in Nuclear Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1994. He currently works for the Tohuko Electric Power Company in reactor operation, reactor safety analysis and nuclear fuel management. He is certified by the Japanese government as a Chief Nuclear Reactor Engineer and Chief Electrical Engineer.

November 14, 2014January 28, 2019

Systematic Study of a Small, Long-life HTGR Design for Passive-Decay Heat Removal

SPEAKER:

ODMAA SAMBUU

DOCTORAL PROGRAM STUDENT, DEPARTMENT OF NUCLEAR ENGINEERING, TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

DATE/TIME:

FRI, 11/14/2014 - 12:15PM TO 1:00PM

LOCATION:

4101 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2014 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

Failure to remove residual decay heat in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011 has definitely influenced design attitudes toward nuclear reactors with passive-decay heat-removal features. Generally, modular high temperature gas-cooler reactors (HTGRs) have the ability to remove decay heat apart from their active and passive cooling systems. However, the feasibility of passive-decay heat removal in HTGRs is subject to design parameters. A systematic methodology for designing HTGR for passive-decay heat removal is introduced. As a part of this study, the conditions of several design parameters is used obtained in previous research for both underground and aboveground HTGRs capable of removing decay-heat successfully and satisfying the safety limit of temperatures of fuel and reactor buildings (RB) . The neutronic performance of a small HTGR whose design parameters were obtained using the conditions was investigated also.

November 3, 2014January 15, 2019

Lessons Learned from CIRFT Testing Methodology in Applying to High Burn-up Spent Nuclear Fuel Vibration Integrity Study

SPEAKER:

JOHN JY-AN WANG

MATERIALS SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY DIVISION
OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY, OAK RIDGE, TN

DATE/TIME:

MON, 11/03/2014 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2014 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

A cyclic integrated reversible-bending fatigue tester (CIRFT) was developed to support U.S. NRC and DOE Used Fuel Disposition Campaign studies on high burn-up (HBU) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) transportation during normal conditions of transport (NCT). Several HBU SNF samples from both Zr-4 and M5 clad were investigated. During CIRFT program development, finite element analysis (FEA) was used to translate CIRFT global measurement data to the localized stress-strain profiles. The stress concentration effect at pellet-pellet interface region was also observed from FEA and such phenomenon was also revealed by CIRFT testing where the majority SNF rod failures are located at pellet-pellet interface. The information resulting from these studies will be presented, as outlined below:

•   Fuel support to the clad stiffness during random vibration
•   Stress concentration effects on the clad at pellet-pellet interfaces
•   The translation of CIRFT global measurements to local stress-strain levels
•   Potential hydrogen effects on SNF vibration integrity
•   Pellet-clad bonding efficiency on SNF mechanical properties
•   Failure mechanisms of HBU SNF rods under reverse bending forces, and
•   The potential impact of combined loading modes and loading rates on SNF vibration integrity.

About the Speaker:

Dr. John Jy-An Wang is a Distinguished Research Staff Member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). He received a Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley, in 1988, in the field of mechanics of material and structural dynamics from Civil Engineering Department. Since 1989 he has been working at ORNL as a research scientist. During his residence at ORNL he has published over 170 technical reports and journal articles on subjects related to fatigue and fracture toughness evaluation of structural materials, the neutron radiation embrittlement predictions for pressure vessel steels, the development of power reactor and test reactor databases for reactor material aging research, spent nuclear fuel vibration reliability investigation, pipeline hydrogen embrittlement study, interfacial fracture toughness research for polymeric composites as well as for weld HAZ materials, cavitation damage simulation research, and high temperature power transmission conductor-connector system reliability investigation.

October 27, 2014January 15, 2019

The CASL Energy Innovation Hub Development of the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications

SPEAKER:

JESS C. GEHIN, PH.D.

REACTOR TECHNOLOGY R&D INTEGRATION LEAD
REACTOR AND NUCLEAR SYSTEMS DIVISION, ORNL

DATE/TIME:

MON, 10/27/2014 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2014 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) is the first Energy Innovation Hub created by the US Department of Energy in 2010. Its primary goal is to develop modeling and simulation capabilities in support of the nuclear power industries’ objectives of reducing the cost of electrical energy generation by increased power uprates, extended fuel discharge burnups, and increased plant lifetime. In order to achieve this, CASL is developing the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA) that includes multiphysics coupling of neutronics, thermal-hydraulics, fuel thermal-mechanical performance, and coolant chemistry. This presentation will discuss VERA development and provide an overview results from VERA for the modeling of the Tennessee Valley Authority Watts Bar Unit 1 reactor and the Westinghouse AP1000®.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Jess Gehin is currently the Reactor Technology R&D Integration Lead in the Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He also leads the Physics Integration Focus Area for the Consortium for Advanced Modeling and Simulation of Light Water Reactors as well as being engaged in additional programmatic areas related to advanced nuclear fuel cycles and advanced reactors. His primary areas of expertise are nuclear reactor physics and reactor and fuel cycle technology. From 2003 to 2008 Dr. Gehin served as the leader of the ORNL Reactor Analysis Group with projects sponsored primarily by the Department of Energy office of Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense. Prior to this position, Dr. Gehin was a Senior R&D staff member performing research primarily in the area of nuclear reactor physics working on projects such as the development of the Advanced Neutron Source Research Reactor, Fissile Material Disposition, and modeling of experiments in the High Flux Isotope Reactor. Dr. Gehin earned his B.S. degree in Nuclear Engineering in 1988 from Kansas State University and M.S. (1990) and Ph.D. (1992) degrees in Nuclear Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Gehin also holds the position of Joint Associate Professor in the Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of Tennessee.

October 20, 2014January 15, 2019

Passivity; the Enabler of Our Reactive Metals-Based Civilization

SPEAKER:

DIGBY D. MACDONALD, PH.D.

DEPARTMENTS OF NUCLEAR ENGINEERING AND MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

DATE/TIME:

MON, 10/20/2014 - 4:00PM TO 5:00PM

LOCATION:

3105 ETCHEVERRY HALL

Fall 2014 Colloquium Series

Abstract:

For more than forty years, the conditions for the existence of the passive state, and hence for the existence of our metals-based civilization, which is based upon the use of the reactive metals (Al, Cr, Fe, Ni, etc) to build machines, have been described in terms of equilibrium thermodynamics in the form of Pourbaix diagrams. These diagrams plot equilibrium potential versus pH relationships for various reactions (e.g., Fe/Fe3O4, Fe/Fe2+, Fe3O4/Fe2+) to define regions of stability or predominance. However, Pourbaix diagrams provide an equilibrium view of passivity, whereas passive films are non-equilibrium structures, whose existence depends upon an appropriate relationship between the rate of formation and the rate of destruction. Accordingly, a more accurate and realistic description of the phenomena of passivity and passivity breakdown must be found in the field of electrochemical kinetics. It is this kinetic theory for depassivation (loss of passivity) that is presented in this paper and which has led to the development of Kinetic Stability Diagrams. KSDs are kinetic alternatives to the classical, thermodynamic equilibrium diagrams and provide a much more accurate view of passivity in highly acidic environments where the utility of Pourbaix diagrams is limited. It is shown that the kinetic theory for depassivation not only accounts for transpassive dissolution, acid depassivation, flow-assisted corrosion, and fretting corrosion, and other “localized corrosion processes”, but it also led to the discovery of a new form of depassivation, which is termed “resistive depassivation”. When applied to microscopic regions on a metal surface, at which cation vacancies that are generated at the film/solution interface by the absorption of chloride ion into surface oxygen vacancies condense at the metal/film interface, and hence cause cessation of the growth of the barrier layer into the metal, “depassivation” theory provides a natural account of blister formation and subsequent passivity breakdown. This presentation will present the theory of passivity breakdown according to the point defect model and will show that the theory accounts essentially for all that is known about this important phenomenon.

About the Speaker:

Born in Thames, New Zealand, December 7 1943, Professor Macdonald gained his BSc and MSc degrees in Chemistry at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the University of Calgary in Canada. He has served as Assistant Research Officer at Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Lecturer in Chemistry at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Senior Research Associate at Alberta Sulfur Research, Honorary Associate Professor at the Chemistry Department of the University of Calgary, Director and Professor of the Fontana Corrosion Center, Ohio State University, Vice President, Physical Sciences Division, SRI International, Menlo Park, California and has been Professor and later Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Pennsylvania State University since 1991. On December 31, 2012, Professor Macdonald retired from Penn State and accepted Emeritus status at the university. He then moved to California become Professor in Residence with a joint appointment between the Departments of Nuclear Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.

Professor Macdonald has received numerous awards and honors, including the 1991 Carl Wagner Memorial Award from The Electrochemical Society; the 1992 Willis Rodney Whitney Award from The National Association of Corrosion Engineers for “contributions to the science of corrosion”; the W. B. Lewis Memorial Lecture from Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., for his “contributions to the development of nuclear power in the service of mankind”; the H. H. Uhlig Award from The Electrochemical Society; the U. R. Evans Award from The Institute of Corrosion, UK; the 20th Khwarizmi International Award in fundamental science; and the Wilson Research and Teaching Awards of the Pennsylvania State University. He is an elected fellow of NACE-International; The Electrochemical Society; the Royal Society of Canada; the Royal Society of New Zealand; ASM International; the World Innovation Foundation; the Institute of Corrosion (UK); and the International Society of Electrochemistry. From 1993 to 1997 he was a member of the US Air Force Science Advisory Board with the protocol rank of Lieutenant General. He was awarded the US Air Force Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service in 1997. Dr. Macdonald was a Trustee of ASM International and has recently (2011) been inducted Doctuer Honoris Causa by INSA-Lyon, Lyon, France. He was a recent (2011) recipient of the Lee Hsun Research Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. More recently (2012), he received the Faraday Memorial Trust Gold Medal from the Central Electrochemical Research Institute in Karaikudi, India, for his work in electrochemistry and in particular on the phenomenon of passivity and passivity breakdown, and in 2013 he was awarded the Gibbs Award for his ground-breaking work on the properties of aqueous solutions at high temperatures [for example, he is the first and only person to measure the pH of an aqueous solution at supercritical temperatures (T > 374.15 oC), with the measurements being made at temperatures up to 528 oC]. In September 2014, he was awarded the Frumkin Memorial Medal by the International Society of Electrochemistry primarily for his work on passivity.

Dr. Macdonald has published more than 900 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, books, and conference proceedings, plus four books, one of which ("Transient Techniques in Electrochemistry") established an important area of electrochemical research, and has 11 patents and numerous invention disclosures credited to his name.