UC Berkeley Awarded DOE Grant for Radioactive Waste Management

UC Berkeley Awarded DOE Grant for Radioactive Waste Management 

March 27, 2024

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In partnership with Florida International University, UC Berkeley has been awarded a grant totaling $3,599,445 to provide for a center of excellence for research and training in radioactive waste management. This grant comes as part of the DOE's Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program (MSIPP). A total of seven minority serving institutions are to be awarded an estimated total of $24,761,831 in MSIPP grants for the three-year period from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2027.

Read the DOE press release.

Eos Neutrino Detector Tests Begin

Eos Neutrino Detector Tests Begin

March 22, 2024

Photo Credit to Thor Swift/Berkeley Lab.

Photomultiplier tubes, used to detect faint sources of light, mounted inside the steel tank of the Eos detector.
Photo Credit to Thor Swift/Berkeley Lab. Photomultiplier tubes, used to detect faint sources of light, mounted inside the steel tank of the Eos detector.

Tests have now begun on Eos, a new type of neutrino detector at UC Berkeley, for nonproliferation and physics research. The effort is led by physics faculty Gabriel Orebi Gann and takes place in the former nuclear reactor site operated by UCBNE.

Read more about the design of Eos and its research aims in Berkeley News.

The not so secret guide to being a Berkeley Engineer

The not so secret guide to being a Berkeley Engineer

September 19th, 2023

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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/

2023 Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation

2023 Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation

September 20th, 2023

The Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation (NESD) is an opportunity for politically and socially active students interested in the intersection between nuclear technology and policy to solve problems facing the industry. NESD focuses on active legislation pertinent to the nuclear energy field and educate and advocate to our Congressional representatives to make informed decisions that will help the field, varying from workforce education to spent fuel repositories. The meetings throughout the week help us understand the nuances of the bills, politics, and industry needs as well as being able to express our independent opinion and exchange ideas with those we’re meeting with. These exchanges are incredibly helpful both as professional development for us students, as well as to make a positive impact on the nuclear industry at a high level.

To learn more about NESD and their impact click on this link: http://www.nesd.org/

New CAMPEP Accreditation of Graduate Program in Medical Physics

New CAMPEP Accreditation of Graduate Program in Medical Physics

August 22, 2023

Our Nuclear Engineering graduate program has recently received the CAMPEP accreditation for medical physics. The new track within the doctoral program – implemented jointly with the Department of Radiation Oncology at UC San Francisco – allows our student to obtain a certification to enroll in medical physics residency programs in the U.S. and to pursue a career in medical physics. This new track - as the only CAMPEP accredited track at UC Berkeley - offers exciting professional opportunities in an ever more important field in the U.S. and around the world. More information can be found here.

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

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

June 15th, 2023

Logo courtesy of Kairos Power

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.

Peter Hosemann Hosts UC Berkeley Manufacturing of Materials Workshop

Professor Peter Hosemann Hosts Manufacturing of Materials Workshop

March 29th, 2023

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UCBNE Professor Peter Hosemann assisted in hosting the workshop "Research & Development: Manufacturing of Materials for Industry Applications" March 27th-29th with members of industry, government and academia. 70 participants discussed the need for comprehensive materials evaluation in the context of manufacturing processes. Each day focused on a different topic, including hard materials and coating technologies, additive manufacturing and electronic materials processing.

The event was sponsored by UCB's Manufacturing 360 center.

Jake Hecla attending international meeting in Poland to discuss situation in Ukraine

Jake Hecla attending international meeting in Poland to discuss situation in Ukraine

October 10th, 2022

Jake Hecla (on the left) and the participants of the “Environmental Radioactivity Risks in Ukraine” conference.
Jake Hecla (on the left) and the participants of the “Environmental Radioactivity Risks in Ukraine” conference.

Jake Hecla, one of our graduate students in the Department of Nuclear Engineering attended the international meeting on “Environmental Radioactivity Risks in Ukraine” last week (5-6 Oct.), organized by Japanese, Polish, and Ukrainian institutions. The goal of this meeting was to assemble experts in radiological measurements and modeling to discuss ongoing research in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (ChEZ), the impact of the ongoing war, and the establishment of state-of-the art monitoring capabilities.

From Ukraine, representatives from the State Agency of Ukraine of Exclusion Zone Management and the Ukraine Academy of Science’s Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants (ISPNPP) provided their perspectives on the current situation in ChEZ and more broadly in Ukraine including the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP).

Jake Hecla presented on “3D Mapping and Visualization of Radioactive Sources” comprising the advanced technologies developed at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to create three-dimensional maps of radiological contamination in near real time from a wide range of platforms including ground robots or small unmanned aerial systems. Jake, other graduate students and LBNL scientists have been able to demonstrate the so-called Scene Data Fusion technology over the last 10 years in the contaminated areas of Fukushima in Japan and in Chernobyl, specifically within the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) and its surrounding including the evacuated city of Pripyat.

Ukrainian participants of this meeting expressed strong interest in utilizing the Berkeley-developed 3D mapping capabilities for the assessment and monitoring of structural and radiological components within the New Safe Confinement or New Shelter, for example related to the large amounts of remaining nuclear fuel containing materials but also in the mapping of the vast outdoor environments within ChEZ and its border.

We hope to be able to find ways to provide these technologies to Ukraine very soon and to allow the utilization of the latest mapping and visualization technologies to effectively and safely assess and monitor the nuclear facilities and associated activities in and around ChNPP but also in and around ZNPP and more broadly, in response to any intentional or accidental event resulting in the release of large amounts of radioactive materials. Gamma Reality Inc. has recently commercialized the SDF technologies and would be able to provide systems to our Ukrainian partners.

Dark Matter featured at the “Exploratorium After Dark”

Dark Matter featured at the “Exploratorium After Dark”

April 28, 2022

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On April 28, fifteen members of the van Bibber research group created an exhibition on the search for dark matter at the popular Thursday evening series “The Exploratorium After Dark” in San Francisco.  The group’s research, the evidence for dark matter and experimental search strategies were on display via multiple plasma screens, posters, and hands-on demonstrations of the microwave technology employed in their experiments looking for the axion.  Group alumna Maria Simanovskaia, currently a postdoc at Stanford University, gave one of two lectures during the evening on her own work hunting for dark matter.  As one of the first in person events after the pandemic, the evening was a great success, drawing more than 900 attendees

Kairos Power Commissions Fluoride Salt Purification Plant 

Kairos Power Commissions Fluoride Salt Purification Plant 

July 20th, 2022

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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.

 

 

 

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