News and Announcement
Creative UT Nuclear Engineering Student Involved in Breakthrough Experiment
By G. Ivan Maldonado, Associate Professor, UT Department of Nuclear Engineering
On September 18, 2012, I was invited by one of my PhD students, David Dixon, currently working at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), to be an observer at an experiment at the Device Assembly Facility (DAF) complex on the Nevada National Nuclear Security Site. A team of LANL, NASA, and NSTec engineers led by Dr. David Poston and David Dixon, among others, carried out a remarkable proof-of-concept test that employed the Flattop spherical benchmark assembly (Figure 1) as a source of heat to operate a Sterling engine and generate 24 watts of electricity. The thick natural uranium reflector can host small spherical cores of enriched fissile material to perform criticality experiments. A small team of –notably mostly young- engineers took advantage of an existing and vacant cylindrical hole in the assembly large enough to host a small diameter heat pipe that transferred the heat of fission from the core to power the Sterling
engine, which in turn generated electricity. This unprecedented experiment was a great success in that it proved a relatively simple concept that could potentially be used to generate long-term electricity for deep space and long-term NASA applications.
It did not surprise me at all that David Dixon was involved in this rather unique experiment that involved quite a bit of engineering creativity, because I know him well. In fact, while he was pursuing his MS degree at UT, David helped me build a multi-core Beowulf cluster from scratch, which in and of itself was great but not overly remarkable, until one day I found out that he had installed a car radiator to help water cool the cluster cores "economically" because the AC in the room was inadequate (Figure 2). We ultimately decided against this bulky setup and opted for more compact heat pipe based (yes, heat pipe) CPU mounted cooling. However, it is hard to forget finding a radiator and jugs of antifreeze in my computer lab!
More recently, during the Fukushima nuclear tragedy in Japan, David was deployed as a backup to represent LANL in Washington DC as a nuclear engineering expert and advisor to the US government. Sometime during that period, questions and discussions led to exploring the feasibility of water jet cutting technology to help break through huge reinforced concrete structures. Under strong skepticism by experts, David led a team of engineers to look into this. See photos of: David setting up the water jet equipmen
t (Figure 3), an enlarged view of the hole drilled through a large concrete block (Figure 4), and receiving an award of recognition for his Fukushima response service from the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu (Figure 5).
I am certainly a fortunate and very proud professor to have run into such a creative individual like David Dixon as my graduate student. He's also the kind of person who never hesitates to give folks a hand to help fix your car or move across town. David is expected to complete his PhD in Nuclear Engineering in 2013, that is, if I can ever stop him from having so much fun! (Posted 11/29/12)
TN-Chattanooga participants recognized at ANS Winter Conference
In September 2012, American Nuclear Society members in the Tennessee Valley area turned out in record numbers to support an ANS presence at a public hearing in order to inform the public and media about the nonproliferation benefits of the mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel program. These remarkable volunteer efforts were recognized in several venues at the 2012 ANS Winter Conference & Technology Expo, including the ANS Public Information (PI) Committee meeting, the ANS Board of Directors, and the ANS PI Workshop hosted by Mimi Limbach of Potomac Communications and Craig Piercy, ANS rep in Washington, D.C. The decision was made at the PI Workshop to designate the official name of the Chattanooga hearing as the "Chattanooga Caper."
The ANS Nuclear Cafe caught up with four of the Chattanooga Caper participants—Steve Skutnik, Chris Perfetti, Lane Carasik, and Howard Hall—in the ANS Media Room and arranged an impromptu photo session.
Steve Skutnik (UT-K), Chris Perfetti (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Lane Carasik (UT-K), and Howard Hall (UT-K). (L to R)
Cheers to these four members for their efforts, and we hope to see additional Chattanooga Caper reps in Atlanta for the 2013 ANS Annual Conference (June 16-20, 2013). Remember to stop by the media room to introduce yourself to the always friendly and helpful ANS staff reps. (Posted 11/29/12)
UT grad program testing radiation downtown by Gerald Witt
A white pickup with U.S. Government tags, a trailer of nuclear testing devices and a weather vane have diverted downtown Knoxville lately. But don't break out the hazmat suits. Matthew Beach, a grad student, is just monitoring equipment in the trailer measuring ambient nuclear energy bouncing around in the urban setting. This is not the focused, powerful stuff studied at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, but the natural nuclear energy that surrounds us — radiation from the sun, the Earth and elsewhere that we never notice. "You have invisible particles," Beach said in describing radiation. Devices in the trailer loaned from ORNL carry a voltage level, he said, "and particles change that current." The change in the current shows the amounts of radiation, Beach kindly described to a layperson. Jason Hayward, University of Tennessee assistant professor of nuclear engineering, is leading the research to determine a baseline that will show fluctuations in radiation. "We're just mapping," Hayward said.
On Thursday police closed Wall Avenue for the afternoon so Beach could park the truck and run generator-powering computers and other technology in the trailer. The mapping, he said, will continue downtown throughout next week. "It's kind of boring," Beach said, jotting notes.
Research opportunities at ORNL for students and faculty
Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL) offers research opportunities for undergraduates, post-baccalaureates, graduate students and faculty through programs such as the Higher Education Research Experience (HERE) and Nuclear Engineering Science Laboratory Synthesis (NESLS). Participants can gain a competitive advantage through hands-on research, mentoring by top scientists, and the use of state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. Applicants are selected based on academic achievements, scientific interests, and career goals. ORNL has a long history and interest in providing hands-on research experiences to students at all academic levels. Over the years, these research experience programs have enhanced students' academic curricula and at the same time have helped ORNL develop its own workforce and contribute to the national vision for excellence in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (STEM). (Posted 10/19/12).
UT COE faculty members express their Big Ideas
College of Engineering faculty members Dr. Howard Hall, Governor's Chair professor of nuclear security, and Dr. Brad Vander Zanden, professor in electrical engineering and computer science, were recently featured in the university's Big Orange Big Ideas campaign.
Hall sees ways to apply UT's capabilities to the challenge of global nuclear security. Video >>
(Posted 10/19/12).
UT Nuclear Engineering Student Sectionof the ANS recognized for outstanding community service
The UT Student Section of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) received a 2011-2012 Certificate of Distinction from the national ANS in recognition of the group's outstanding service to the community and to the society. (Posted 10/12/12).
UT, ORNL Lead National Team to Study Materials Performance in Nuclear Fusion Reactors
KNOXVILLE — Power from nuclear fusion reactors has the promise to be safe, sustainable and limitless. But science has not been able to bring fusion energy to the commercial energy market. This is partly because the operating limits of the reactor materials are not known.
A team of researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in collaboration with seven other institutions, is trying to change that.
Led by Brian Wirth, UT-ORNL Governor's Chair for Computational Nuclear Engineering, the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) project will receive $2.3 million from the Department of Energy for the first year with plans for a total of $11.5 million over five years. ORNL and UT will receive $850,000 for the first year with plans for a total of $4.1 million over five years.
Nuclear fusion promises an almost limitless supply of clean and safe energy. Unlike the nuclear fission reactors used today, it doesn't come with the challenge of managing used nuclear fuel containing very long-lived radioactivity. This is because the process to create the energy is different. In nuclear fission, an atom is split into two smaller atoms which remain radioactive for hundreds to many thousands of years. In fusion, two or more smaller atoms are fused into a larger atom that is not radioactive.
"However, the fusion process currently pursued unleashes a very high-energy neutron that is believed to produce more damage to reactor materials than in fission," Wirth said. "Now is the right time to examine this impact of fusion reactions on materials as we determine whether we can really make fusion work as a practical energy source."
The researchers will examine how the surfaces of materials which comprise the reactor respond when being bombarded by energetic neutrons and ions. Using high-performance computers such as ORNL's Jaguar and UT's Kraken, the researchers will try to accurately predict materials' performance and evaluate materials systems and component design for the fusion reactor environment. The team will then be positioned to use their computational tools to evaluate new materials and component designs to enable fusion energy.
"A fusion reactor works by introducing plasma — a hot, electrically charged gas that serves as the reactor fuel — into a vacuum vessel," Wirth said. "The plasma is then confined using electric and magnetic fields into a central, vacuum region."
The problem, he said, is that ions from the plasma escape and bombard the material surfaces, in addition to the high-energy neutrons. This combination causes significant damage and changes the properties of the reactor materials.
"It's likely materials do not exist today that could be used to build a reactor that would contain the plasma," Wirth said.
The material property changes are driven by many processes that occur in less than a nanosecond. Yet, it is the cumulative interaction of such processes over much longer times that determine the precise value of these changes. Wirth and his team aim to develop models which stretch this interaction over the period of many decades to evaluate their long-term effects.
"We are trying to identify and model numerous microscale defect and impurity interaction processes that occur over rapid time scales which can span less than a nanosecond," Wirth said. "And then we are trying to integrate these into a model that can predict the material response over the years and decades for which a plasma reactor needs to operate."
Wirth notes that making these goals more challenging is the fact that no current experimental facilities exist that accurately represent the environment these materials are expected to face.
"Our research will address one critically important aspect toward getting to fusion energy," Wirth said. "I'm optimistic about the potential for fusion energy, but realistic in understanding how difficult it will be to realize."
The Department of Energy's Office of Fusion Energy Sciences and Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research are jointly funding this SciDAC project. Collaborating institutions include Argonne National Laboratory; Los Alamos National Laboratory; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; University of California, San Diego; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and General Atomics.
(Posted 9/11/12)
UT Nuclear Engineering faculty receives the ISA Fellow award
Dr. Belle Upadhyaya received the ISA Fellow Award and the International Society of Automation Honors and Awards Gala during the ISA Automation Week in Orlando, FL on September 24, 2012 (Posted 9/28/12)
Chattanooga television station WDEF quoted UT Nuclear Engineering professor Dr. Howard Hall in its report on the TVA discussion.
Read about and view the TV report. (Posted 9/14/12)
Dr. Jason Hayward named first UCOR Fellow
A major gift from Department of Energy (DOE) contractor UCOR has established the UCOR faculty fellowship in the University of Tennessee, Knoxville's College of Engineering. This gift meets Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek's challenge to private supporters to help recruit and retain UT's most talented faculty.
UCOR (URS |CH2M Oak Ridge LLC), the DOE's cleanup contractor for the Oak Ridge Reservation, is donating $250,000 toward the fellowship. The first recipient of the faculty fellow award is Jason Hayward, an assistant professor in the college's Department of Nuclear Engineering. Hayward is a top recipient of external research awards in the department, which is the ninth-ranked graduate program in the nation, according to US News and World Report.
Leo Sain, UCOR's president and project manager, announced the fellowship on Friday, June 29, at the East Tennessee Economic Council meeting in Oak Ridge.
Read more about the Chancellor's Challenge. (Posted 7/6/12)
The International Society of Automation has elected Dr. Belle Upadhyaya, Nuclear Engineering, to the distinguished grade of ISA Fellow. Awards will be presented at the 50th Annual ISA Honors & Awards Gala on Monday, Sept. 24, at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Fla. (Posted 6/22/12)
Two UT Nuclear Engineering students have received the "Innovation in Fuel Cycle Research" award from the US Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, Fuel Cycle and Research and Development. Cole Gentry and Nathan George, PhD students in the UT Department of Nuclear Engineering each won an award for their research work in Fully Ceramic Micro-Encapsulated Fuel (FCM). Both of these students recently completed their Masters of Science Degree in nuclear engineering during the past year and are currently pursuing their doctorate degree under the supervision of Dr. G. Ivan Maldonado, Associate Professor at UT Nuclear Engineering. Their research on FCM fuel is conducted under collaboration with several Oak Ridge National Laboratory staff members; namely, Mr. Andrew Godfrey (also a UT NE distance education graduate student), Dr. Kurt Terrani, and Dr. Jess Gehin (Adjunct and Joint ORNL/UT Faculty). The award recognizes the research described in the following two articles published at the recent international meeting in physics of reactors held in Knoxville in the spring:
- C. Gentry, G.I. Maldonado, A. Godfrey, K. Terrani, J. Gehin, "Application of Fully Ceramic Microencapsulated Fuel for Transuranic Waste Recycling in PWRs," PHYSOR 2012 – Advances in Reactor Physics – Linking Research, Industry and Education, Knoxville, TN, April 15-20, 2012, on CD ROM (#317).
- N. George, G.I. Maldonado, K. Terrani, A. Godfrey, J. Gehin, "Uranium-Based Fully Ceramic Microencapsulated Fuel for PWRs," PHYSOR 2012 – Advances in Reactor Physics – Linking Research, Industry and Education, Knoxville, TN, April 15-20, 2012, on CD ROM (#380)
This is the third annual Innovations in Fuel Cycle Research awards competition for students sponsored by the Office of Fuel Cycle Technologies of the U.S. Department of Energy. The program is designed to: award graduate and undergraduate students for innovative fuel-cycle-relevant research publications, and demonstrate the Office of Fuel Cycle Technologies' commitment to higher education in fuel-cycle-relevant disciplines. In addition to cash prizes, the top-ranked prize winners will present in a special session of the 2012 American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting (San Diego, CA, November 11-15, 2012). Additionally, some participants will be invited to participate in anInnovators' Forum, a forum designed around innovative thinking techniques and engaging students in advancing innovations in fuel cycle research. Both events offer compensation for allowable travel expenses of the students awarded. (Posted 6/22/2012)
HALL EXAMINES FUTURE NEEDS IN NUCLEAR AND RADIOCHEMISTRY
Professor Howard Hall, Department of Nuclear Engineering and the UT Institute for Nuclear Security, served on the "Committee on Assuring a Future U.S.-Based Nuclear Chemistry Expertise," under the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology in the Division on Earth and Life Studies of the National Research Council.
The committee looked at the ability of the United States to meet future nuclear and radiochemistry needs. It found that, while demand for nuclear and radiochemistry experts will not decrease, many of the current experts are approaching retirement age and the number of students opting for careers in these fields has decreased dramatically. The report offers recommendations for actions to avoid a shortage of personnel in the future.
Download the full report here. (Posted 6/8/12.)
UT will receive $360,000 in Nuclear Energy University Programs funds from a collaboration of Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering Ivan Maldonado on the Georgia Tech-led project "Fuel Core Design Options to Overcome the Heavy Metal Loading Limit and Improve Performance and Safety of Liquid Salt Cooled Reactors." Maldonado and his colleagues will examine new options for fuel and core designs in liquid salt-cooled reactors. They hope to develop a new, safer, and more efficient design. (Posted 5/29/12)
The Oak Ridge/Knoxville Section of the American Nuclear Society annually awards scholarships to nuclear engineering students based on academic achievement and professional promise.
UT Nuclear Engineering undergraduate students Alexandra Popova and Hailey Green, second and third from the left in the adjacent photo, each received $2,000 scholarships this year (Posted 5/7/2012)
University of Tennessee Nuclear Engineering students had a total of nine presentations at the recent American Nuclear Society Student Conference held in Las Vegas, NV. Charles Morrow won the award for the best oral presentation in the Nuclear Installations Safety/Operations and Power session for his talk entitled "Auto-Regression Modeling of Pressure Transducers for Monitoring of Gas Centrifuge Facilities." Ben Dabbs won the award for best oral presentation in the Neutronics session for his talk entitled "Local Area Fast Neutron Background Measurements." In other ANS-related news, six UT Nuclear Engineering undergraduate students were awarded $2000 ANS scholarships this spring. The scholarships are sponsored by the National ANS and are competed for on a national level. Harrison Bogema and Blake Palles both won ANS Undergraduate Scholarship Awards; Phillip Braaten won the ANS William R. and Mila Kimel Memorial Scholarship Award; Lane Carasik won the ANS Robert T. Liner Memorial Scholarship Award; Eric Collins won the ANS Human Factors, Instrumentation and Controls Division (HFICD) Nuclear Power Scholarship Award, and Caroll Huffine won the ANS Raymond DiSalvo Memorial Scholarship Award. (Posted 5/11/12)
The UT Department of Nuclear Engineering Advisory Board met on April 30, 2012 (see picture below). (Posted 5/4/2012)
Front Row (L to R): Scott Thomas (Duke Energy), Angela Howard (Howard-Johnson Associates), John Auxier (Auxier and Associates), Dr. Audeen Fentiman (Purdue University), Ron Cocherell (Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Inc.)
Back Row (L to R): Dr. Cecil Parks (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Chris Clark (BWXT Y-12), Dr. Norbert Ackermann (Spinlab Utility Instrumentation, Inc.), Larry Tucker (GE-Hitachi Nuclear Alliance)
Nuclear Engineering Ph.D. graduate makes COE history
Jamie Anderson is the first female African-American student to graduate from the University of Tennessee with a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering. The Knoxville native earned her BS in 2008, her MS in 2009, and will accept her doctorate at the May 10, 2012, graduate hooding.
Anderson’s studies are within the Radiological Engineering Concentration. Her research interests include measurements and modeling of the effectiveness of shielding materials for use in space environments; Monte Carlo space radiation transport and shielding codes; and methods for estimating environmental levels of radioactivity.
In her work as a graduate research assistant, Anderson helped develop improved HETC-HEDS estimates of detector response for the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft; analyzed actual CRaTER data from NASA’s LRO mission; and computed LET and dose response for CRaTER using the HZETRN and HETC-HEDS transport codes.
Anderson also spent summer 2008 as a Reactor Engineering Summer Intern at the Tennessee Valley Authority Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Spring City, Tenn.
In addition to her field experience and coursework, Anderson has been honored with several awards in her academic career, and has presented numerous papers. She was given the Hall of Fame Award at the recent TLSAMP Banquet. She also co-authored journal articles on her CRaTER research and on estimating radiation exposures of a solar-particle event on Mars.
Anderson will continue her research with CRaTER on a post-doctorate basis at UT with Dr. Lawrence Townsend via funding by the University of New Hampshire. She plans on seeking a professorship follow her post-doctorate work. (Posted 04/27/12)
Dr. Ivan Maldonado will be the co-General Chair of the the ANS Physics of Reactors Topical Meeting, titled PHYSOR 2012, Sunday-Friday, April 15-20, at the Knoxville Convention Center. This is the premier international conference on the physics of nuclear reactors, expecting to attract around 500 registrants from around the world.
Provost Dr. Susan Martin as well as ORNL Lab Director Thom Mason will be among the dignitaries providing welcome remarks on Monday, April 16, during the plenary. Also on Monday night, Joan Cronan will offer a motivastional talk during a banquet at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
For information, visit http://physor2012.org. (Posted 4/13/12).
Undergraduate Research Awards for Spring, 2012. Lane Carasik and Christopher Baxter (not pictured), students in Nuclear Engineering, were undergraduate research projects award winners at this year's EUReCA awards ceremony on March 29, 2012. Their research was entitled "Thermal Stratification of a Twin Jet Mixing Experiment". Their faculty sponsor was Dr. Art Ruggles. (Posted 4/13/12)
Brian Wirth, Governor's Chair for computation nuclear engineering, briefed Secretary of Energy Steven Chu at Oak Ridge National Laboratory this week. Wirth spoke about nuclear fuel modeling activities within the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL). CASL is one of three Department of Energy hubs launched by Secretary Chu.
Wirth currently serves as deputy focus area lead for materials performance and optimization within CASL which is a large-scale, $25 million-per-year effort to team up across national laboratories, universities, and industry in an attempt to model the performance of nuclear reactors.
Wirth uses the high-performance computing capability of Jaguar to simulate nuclear fuel performance and the performance of nuclear reactors within a virtual reactor to better understand operating safety limits with the goal of optimizing power usage.
Secretary Chu's stop in Oak Ridge was part of a daylong trip to underscore the Obama administration's support of nuclear energy. "We think that nuclear power will play an important role in this country's energy mix," he said, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. "We can't put all our eggs in one basket." Read more about Secretary Chu's visit here. (Posted 2/17/12)
DOE Office of Nuclear Energy Approves Project
The DOE Office of Nuclear Energy has approved a collaborative International Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (I-NERI) project between the University of Tennessee Department of Nuclear Engineering (NE) and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon, Republic of Korea. The project is titled, "Development of Diagnostics and Prognostics Methods for Sustainability of Nuclear Power Plant Safety Critical Functions." The project will integrate monitoring and diagnostics methods developed by the international team of Korean and U.S. collaborators and demonstrate the techniques and measurement strategies for three selected safety-related equipment in nuclear power plants. The NE collaborators are Dr. Belle Upadhyaya as the lead PI and Dr. Wes Hines as the Co-PI. (Posted 1/27/12)
Dr. Howard Hall, Governor's Chair Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering (NE), served as part of the U.S. delegation at a U.S.-South Korea-Malaysia International Workshop on Safeguards Curriculum Development. This meeting was focused on developing curricula that incorporates the "3S" concept (safety, security and safeguards) for nuclear specialists. This is particularly important for nations considering developing nuclear power production for electricity (such as Malaysia).
The meeting was held at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM, the National University of Malaysia), which is putting together nuclear "3S" programs in the Faculty of Science and Technology and the Faculty of Law (roughly equivalent to UT's College of Engineering and College of Law). The UKM program in the Faculty of Science and Technology is using the UT certificate in nuclear security in the NE derpartment as one of the models for its program. (Posted 12/16/11)
The UT Nuclear Engineering Department held its annual Holiday Party on Dec. 4, 2011 at Fox Den Country Club. The party was attended by over 100 guests including faculty, staff, students, and friends of the department. Dr. Dodds, our soon-to-be-retired Department Head, was the host for the party. He is shown above with two of our graduate students: Alicia Swift (on the left), who is a former Florida Gator and Spencer Walsh (on the right), BS in NE graduate from UT. Everyone enjoyed the party, especially the excellent food provided by Fox Den Country Club. Happy Holidays! (Posted 12/06/11)
David Chandler, UTNE graduate research assistant, recently received one of three "best paper" awards at the COMSOL Multiphysics Conference in Newton, Mass. Chandler completed his doctorate in nuclear engineering in August, 2011 and submitted a paper to the conference based on his dissertation. His paper, entitled, "COMSOL-based Nuclear Reactor Kinetics Studies at the High Flux Isotope Reactor," was co-authored by his UTNE major professor, Dr. Ivan Maldonado, and two of his technical mentors at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Dr. James D. Freels and R. Trent Primm, III. (Posted 11/30/11)
Panel Discussion Attracts Questions on Religion, Nuclear Power "Nukes and Faith: Discussing Religion's Role in Nuclear Security and Energy" took place on Monday, Oct. 24, at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy. The student-initiated panel discussion, organized in part by the student chapter of INMM, offered a provocative and unique discussion of views on nuclear weapons and energy through technical, political, Evangelical Christian and Unitarian Universalist perspectives. The speakers included Howard Hall, Governor's Chair Professor of Nuclear Engineering; Brandon Prins, associate professor of political science; Jeffrey Kovac, professor of chemistry; and Sherrell Greene, independent nuclear energy consultant. The speakers answered audience questions directed toward religion, nuclear power, political issues and nonproliferation. The event was sponsored by Tyson House Episcopal & Lutheran Campus Ministry, the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, the UT Religious Studies Association and the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy. (Posted 11/07/11)
Dr. Lee Dodds, IBM Professor of Engineering and Department Head, recently attended the Low Carbon Earth Summit (LCES2011) conference in Dalian, China where he organized and chaired a session on 'Next Generation Nuclear Reactors,' which included eleven presentations. After the LCES2011 conference he travelled to Hong Kong, China to visit the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) as the guest of the President of CityU, Dr. Way Kuo, where he gave a presentation entitled 'Overview of the University of Tennessee Nuclear Engineering Department and its Distance Education Programs' to the CityU College of Science and Engineering.(Posted 10/31/11)
Charles Morrow, a graduate student in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, presented a research paper at the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) Central Region Chapter 2011 Fall Meeting, held Oct. 24-25, 2011, at the ORNL Conference Center. His paper, titled "Thermal Camera Imaging for Security Monitoring of GCEP Systems," received the student paper award. This award will also fund him to attend the national INMM Meeting in June 2012, in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Belle Upadhyaya is his major professor and Dr. Jose March-Leuba is his adviser at ORNL. Congratulations, Charles! (Posted 10/28/11)
The Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) of the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a three-year research and development (R&D) project to the Department of Nuclear Engineering (NE), titled "In-situ Condition Monitoring of Components in Small Modular Reactors Using Process and Electrical Signature Analysis." The R&D effort will be in collaboration with ORNL's Measurement Sciences and Systems Engineering Division. The project leaders are Dr. Belle Upadhyaya and Dr. Wes Hines of the NE department. The total project funding is $650,000 and will support graduate and undergraduate research. This project is synergistic to the current NEUP award to the NE department titled "Development and Validation of a Lifecycle-based Prognostics Architecture with Test Bed Validation." This project has a total funding of $850,000 for three years, with Hines as the lead PI and Upadhyaya as the Co-PI; the R&D will be performed in collaboration with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The NEUP has also awarded a four-year R&D project to the NE department, titled, "Development of Multiscale Materials Modeling Techniques and Coarse-Graining Strategies for Predicting Materials Degradation in Extreme Irradiation Environments." The project leader is Dr. Brian Wirth, Governor's Chair Professor of Computational Nuclear Engineering. The total project funding is $750,000 and will support graduate and undergraduate research. This project will continue to develop improved knowledge and predictive materials models of nuclear reactor component performance degradation in service as a result of radiation-induced degradation that will ultimately lead to development strategies for advanced, higher-performance reactor materials.
(Posted 10/21/11)
On August 29, 2011, University of Tennessee students Ben Farr and Jeremy Townsend received the Charles D. Coryell Award in Nuclear Chemistry. This award, presented annually by the American Chemical Society's Division of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology (ACS-DNCT), recognizes undergraduate excellence in nuclear chemistry research. Farr and Townsend were presented the award at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Denver. The award includes a $500 prize for each from ACS-DNCT. (Posted 8/29/11)
Dr. H. Lee Dodds, IBM Professor of Engineering and Head of the UT Nuclear Engineering Department, has been elected to a three year term on the national Board of Directors of the American Nuclear Society (ANS). The ANS is a not-for-profit, international, scientific and educational organization covering the diverse fields of nuclear science and technology. The society is composed of over 11,000 engineers, scientists, administrators, and educators representing 1,600 plus corporations, educational institutions, and government agencies. It is governed by four officers and a Board of Directors that is elected by the membership. (Posted 7/08/11)
Santosh Bhatt (graduate student in Nuclear Engineering) received the 2011 H. Wade Patterson Memorial Award from the Health Physics Society at their annual meeting in Palm Beach, Florida. H. Wade Patterson Memorial Award, Established in 2003, the H. Wade Patterson Memorial Award is presented each year at the annual Health Physics Society meeting to recognize outstanding students in accelerator health physics. The winner receives a check and plaque.
The award is a tribute to H. Wade Patterson (1924-1997), who was the first president of the Accelerator Section of the Health Physics Society and is generally regarded as the first professional accelerator health physicist. His work at Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories established him as one of the world's experts in shielding at high-energy accelerators. As a life-long educator and organizer of the first accelerator radiation protection training programs, Patterson is an apt role model for students aspiring to a career in accelerator health physics. (Posted 7/08/11)
Jamie Anderson (graduate student in Nuclear Engineering) has been awarded the presitigous Dade Moeller Scholarship from the Health Physics Society. The Award consists of each of the following: i)Monetary support of $2,000.00 during one academic year to the recipient for educational expenses – provided by the Dade Moeller Fund; ii) Nominal monetary support to the recipient to support attendance at the annual meeting of the Society to cover travel, lodging, meals, incidentals and other reasonable, normal and routine expenses – provided by the Dade Moeller Fund; iii) Complementary registration at the meeting – provided by the Health Physics Society; and, iv) Complementary tickets to the Society’s Awards Ceremony – provided by the Health Physics Society. (Posted 7/08/11)
UTNE’s first BS graduating class, which occurred in 1960, included Bruce Deering, Jim Humphreys, Jim Robinson, and Ed Straker. The above commencement picture of three of the four graduates appeared in the June 5, 1960 issue of the Knoxville News Sentinel. Bruce Deering (center) eventually became an executive with Black and Veatch, a large architectural, engineering, and construction company. Jim Robinson (right) later became a UTNE faculty member after receiving his PhD and working in the nuclear field for several years. Jim Humphreys (left), the ‘smart one,’ became a practicing cardiologist after graduating from UT medical school. Ed Straker (not in the picture) also earned a PhD and eventually became a senior vice president of Science Applications International Corporation.(Posted June 9, 2011).
Dr. Howard Hall Governor's Chair Professor for Nuclear Security in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, has been asked to serve on a committee for The National Academies: Advisers to the Nation in Science, Engineering and Medicine. The project title is "Assuring a Future US-based Nuclear Chemistry Expertise," and will examine supply and demand for nuclear chemistry expertise in the U.S. compared with the production of experts with these skills. The project will last 18 months.
(Posted April 18, 2011)
Dr. Haitao Liao, a joint assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and the Department of Industrial and Information Engineering, recently received the 2010 William A.J. Golomski Award for his outstanding paper, "Spare Part Inventory Control Driven by Condition Based Maintenance," in the proceedings of the 2010 Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium (RAMS). (Posted April 18, 2011)
Mark Walker, a junior in nuclear engineering, has been named a 2011 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar. Goldwater Scholarships are awarded yearly to sophomores and juniors pursuing careers in research in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering.
This year, the Goldwater foundation awarded 275 scholarships nationwide, out of a pool of nearly 1,100 applicants. In order to compete for a Goldwater Scholarship, students must be nominated by their college or university. All three students nominated by the University of Tennessee were awarded scholarships this year. In fact, UT was awarded more scholarships than Yale, Caltech, MIT and Georgia Tech, among many other first rate STEM schools.
Walker is a member of the Chancellor's Honors Program and Haslam Scholars Programs. He has been doing research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) since the summer after his freshman year. He also had an internship at the Naval Reactors Headquarters in Washington, D.C., last summer. His current research at ORNL is mentored by Dr. John Mihalczo, and focuses on the Nuclear Material Identification System, which is primarily used to verify compliance with nuclear treaties. Walker hopes to continue research in nuclear security technology, and to pursue a career in nuclear safeguards policy.
"This year's Goldwater results demonstrate that the research experiences available to undergraduates at UT are on par, and often better than some of the most highly regarded schools in the nation, which makes me truly honored to be part of the UT community," Walker said.
The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship provides up to $7,500 per year for tuition, books, and room and board. Since it began the scholarship program in 1989, the foundation has awarded more than 6,600 scholarships worth approximately $50 million. In 2012, the Goldwater Foundation plans to award about 300 scholarships.
(Posted April 4, 2011)
Mr. William Magwood (right), Commissioner, U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission visited the UT Nuclear Engineering Department on March 2, 2011, along with three of his support staff. He met with students, faculty, Dean of Engineering Wayne Davis, and UTNE Department Head Lee Dodds (left). He also presented a UTNE Colloquium presentation entitled "Nuclear Energy, Looking Back, Looking Forward, and Looking Now." His presentation is archived on our web site at http://www.engr.utk.edu/nuclear/colloquia/Archive/ and may be viewed using a computer with a broadband connection to the Internet.
(Posted March 2, 2011)
A team of UTNE graduate students won first place in the 2010 Student Design Contest, which is sponsored annually by the American Nuclear Society. The team consisting of Mathew Cook, Oscar Lastres, and Susan Hogle won for their project entitled “Conceptual Design of a Neutron Absorber System for Spent Fuel Pools.” Their work was supervised by Dr. Martin Grossbeck, UTNE Research Professor. UTNE students have been finalists, winning either 1st or 2nd place in either the undergraduate or graduate category of the annual contest in 32 of the past 35 years (see http://www.ans.org/honors/recipients/va-studesign). This record of accomplishment is unmatched by any other nuclear engineering program in the U.S. and clearly confirms the outstanding quality of the UTNE student design program. (Posted December 3, 2010)
Dr. Belle Upadhyaya attended the ISA Automation Week, Houston, Texas, October 2010, and accepted the ISA (International Society of Automation) Transactions Best Paper Award for 2009 on behalf of his co-authors Fan Li and Lonnie Coffey. This award is presented annually by the Publications Department of ISA. (Posted October 19, 2010)
Brenden T. Mervin, doctoral student in the UT Department of Nuclear Engineering has recently been awarded a 2010 Nuclear Nonproliferation International Safeguards Graduate (NNIS) Fellowship. This highly competitive award sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is a 48-month fellowship worth up to $100,000 in total support. These fellowships are intended to help develop highly trained personnel that can ultimately participate in the multitude of ongoing programs in nuclear nonproliferation and international safeguards. Brenden's area of research is related to the development of revolutionary next-generation radiation transport modeling and simulation methods in cooperation with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and with a special emphasis upon depletion and isotopic inventory tracking of spent nuclear fuel. Brenden's major professor is Dr. G. Ivan Maldonado and close technical advisors at ORNL include Dr. John C. Wagner and Dr. Scott W. Mosher. (Posted 10/19/2010)
Nuclear Engineering graduate student Trey Kauerz won a $1000 award for the best student presentation at a local conference hosted by the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM). The presentation, based on his master's thesis work, is on an alternative method to measure the enrichment of uranium stored in uranium hexafluoride (UF6) cylinders. The conference hosted speakers who covered topics on measurement, education and training, safeguards by design, and monitoring of nuclear materials around the world.
Trey's major professor is Dr. Howard Hall, and research mentors at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) include Chris Pickett and Alan Krichinsky. (Posted 10/15/2010)
UTNE undergraduate student, Christopher Baxter, is pictured below with our PWR Simulator that he 'repaired' after it quit working properly. A team of electronics experts consisting of a UTNE faculty member, a UTNE graduate student, a talented electronics technician, and a hired consultant all tried to fix the simulator, but without success. Along comes Christopher, who was a navy electronics technician on the USS Enterprise for several years before becoming a UTNE undergraduate student. He said," Let me try to fix it." Needless to say, he did fix it as the below picture shows. Thanks to Christopher for his genuine electronics expertise. (Posted 10/12/2010)
On June 21, 2010, thirty-five Tennessee science teachers attended a one-day workshop on Nuclear Fundamentals. The teachers received nuclear information to take back to their students including a radiation detector and samples of common radioactive materials that are encountered in everyday life. They also toured several ORNL facilities and received Continuing Education Credits that are required to maintain their Teacher's Certificate. The event, which has occurred annually for well over a decade, is sponsored by the Oak Ridge/Knoxville Local Section of the American Nuclear Society, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and The University of Tennessee Nuclear Engineering Department.(Posted 7/8/2010)
Middle and High School Science Teachers attend Nuclear Fundamentals Workshop
The UT Department of Nuclear Engineering Advisory Board met on May 3, 2010 (see picture below). (Posted 6/9/2010)
Front Row (L to R): Scott Thomas (Duke Power), John Gertsen (BWXT Y-12), Pete Planchon (Idaho National Laboratory)
Back Row (L to R): Larry Tucker (GE-Hitachi Nuclear Alliance), Dr. Audeen Fentiman (Purdue University), Robert Whalen (Tennessee Valley Authority). Dr. William Martin (Not pictured) - (University of Michigan) attended via teleconference.
UTNE Associate Professor Dr. Ivan Maldonado is also a very successful soccer coach (see article). (Posted 6/9/10).
UT Knoxville's nuclear engineering graduate program is now a top 10 program, according to the U.S. News and Word Report 2011 graduate rankings. The program was ranked ninth in the country, rising three spots from last year. UT's law, education and logistics programs also were ranked among the best in the nation. (Posted April 16, 2010)
In January of 2010, under sponsorship by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Dr. Ivan Maldonado visited Harbin Engineering University (HEU) in Harbin, China as a nuclear engineering guest lecturer. Dr. Maldonado’s visit occurred during Harbin’s Annual Ice Festival, which is the largest and most impressive Ice Festival on the planet, thanks to their long winters and very low temperatures. He took several photos which he posted on the following link: http://picasaweb.google.com/GuillermoIvanMaldonado/IvanSVisitToHarbinEngineeringUniversityIPhonePhotos?feat=directlink#
His slide show is definitely worth seeing. Dr. Maldonado was the third lecturer from the UT Nuclear Engineering Dept. to present invited lectures at HEU. Dr. Lee Dodds visited in late October, when the weather is much more suitable for senior citizens 
and Dr. Haitao Liao visited in December, which is also quite cold, but not nearly as cold as during Dr. Maldonado’s January visit.
(Posted 01/25/2010)
Dr. Lee Dodds, UTNE Department Head, recently visited Harbin Engineering University (HEU) in Harbin, China as an invited lecturer, which was financially supported by HEU. The objective of the visit was to share information about nuclear engineering education in the U.S. in order to help HEU improve its educational system. The picture above shows Dr. Dodds lecturing to HEU faculty and students on excursion modeling and applications in nuclear criticality safety. During his one week visit to HEU, Dr. Dodds lectured for a total of 15 hours on a variety of nuclear engineering related topics. (Posted 11/09/2009)
A delegation from Harbin Engineering University (HEU) in Harbin, China recently visited the UT Nuclear Engineering (UTNE) Department. The leader of the delegation, Dr. Zhang Zhijian, who is the Dean of Engineering at HEU, and Dr. Lee Dodds, Head of the UTNE Department, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote collaboration in research in the two departments. Other members of the visiting delegation were (l-r) Dr. Yang Ming, Deputy Director of HEU, Dr. Zhang Zhijian, Dr. Dodds, Ms. Wen Liu, HEU Foreign Affairs Representative, and Dr. Peng Minjun, Deputy Director of the HEU Nuclear Power Simulation Research Center. (Posted 8/12/2009)
The UT Department of Nuclear Engineering Advisory Committee met on April 27, 2009 (see picture below). (Posted 6/1/2009)
Front Row (L to R): Dr. Audeen Fentiman (Purdue University), Dan Keuter (Entergy, Inc.), Angelina Howard (Nuclear Energy Institute) and Pete Planchon (Idaho National Laboratory).
Back Row (L to R): Dr. Bert Ackermann (Spinlab Utility Instrumentation, Inc.), Dr. William Martin (University of Michigan), David Gambrell (Southern Nuclear Operating Company), Dr. Jim Rushton (Oak Ridge National Laboratory).
Jason Hayward, an assistant professor of nuclear engineering, was awarded a five-year, $1.5 million grant by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to develop equipment for detecting penetrating radiation. QUEST, UT Knoxville's comprehensive research initiative, has selected Hayward as its Scholar of the Week for the week of May 21, 2009. (Posted 6/1/09)
Dr. Jason Hayward, assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, secured $603,172 in funding from the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program for research concerning an Underwater Vehicle for Radiation Measurements in Marine or Riverine Environments. (Posted 3/16/09)
Local NBC affiliate, WBIR-TV, interviewed UTNE Associate Professor Dr. Ivan Maldonado and several of his classroom students on 10/20/2008. To view the video of this interview, which addresses the job market for nuclear engineering graduate see,
Click here to view the video.
The UT Department of Nuclear Engineering Advisory Committee met on April 28, 2008 (see picture below). (Posted 5/19/2008)
Front Row (L to R): Bruce Hunt (Southern Nuclear Operating Company), Dr. John Auxier (Auxier & Assoc.), Angelina Howard (Nuclear Energy Institute), Dr. Mehdi Asgari (Idaho National Laboratory), Ken Keith (BWXT Y-12).
Back Row (L to R): Thomas Geer (Duke Power), Charles Turk (Entergy, Inc.), Dr. Jim Rushton (ORNL), Dr. William Martin (University of Michigan), Bill Campbell (TVA).
Dr. Wes Hines, professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering has been named Interim Associate Dean for Research and Technology. (Posted 5/1/08)
The University of Tennessee Nuclear Engineering Graduate Program is ranked no. 11 nationally according to 2008 rankings by U.S. News and World Report. Among public institutions (i.e., excluding MIT), UTNE is ranked no. 10. Currently there are approximately 40 NE programs in the U.S., and several new NE programs are expected in the near future. UTNE's no. 11 ranking for 2008 is one level higher than the 2007 ranking (i.e., no. 12). (Posted 3/31/08)
Students in nuclear engineering attended the American Nuclear Society's student conference last week at Texas A&M. Each student presented and won an award for "Outstanding Technical Undergraduate Presentation" in each of their divisions. Dustin Scurlock won in the category of Fusion Energy and Accelerator Applications; Mark Massie won in the category of Reactor Physics; Sergio de la Barrera won in the category of Radiation Detection and Analysis; Christian Farmer won in the category of Aerospace Nuclear Science and Technology; Eric Moore won in the category of Operations and Power; and Sergio Perillo (not pictured) won second place as a graduate student in the category of Aerospace Nuclear Science and Technology. (Posted 3/27/08)
The Southeast chapter of the AAPM has awarded the honor of Best Therapy Paper to the following publication:
Seibert, R., C. Ramsey, D. Garvey, J. Hines, B. Robison and S. Outten (2007). "Verification of helical tomotherapy delivery using autoassociative kernal regression." Medical Physics 34(8): 3249-3262.
First author Rebecca Seibert is a PhD student in Nuclear Engineering and will be attending the Southeast Chapter of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine in Birmingham Alabama to receive her award and give a brief talk. (Posted 3/7/08)
A team of University of Tennessee Nuclear Engineering (UTNE) graduate students recently won first place in the 2007 ANS Student Design Contest for their project entitled "A Small Mobile Molten Salt Reactor (SM-MSR) For Underdeveloped Countries and Remote Locations." The authors are William Casino, Kirk Sorensen, and Christopher Whitener, who performed their work under the direction of UTNE Research Professor Dr. Martin Grossbeck. A somewhat unique aspect of the project is that all three authors are UTNE distance MS students and live several hundred miles apart. Mr. Casino works for AREVA in Lynchburg, VA; Mr. Sorensen works for NASA in Huntsville, AL; and Mr. Whitener works for Duke Energy in Charlotte, NC. They were able to work together successfully using UT distance education technology, which is interactive in real time via the Internet (Voice over IP). Since the inception of the annual contest in 1976, UTNE students have won either first or second place in the annual contest in 28 of the past 31 years (for past contest winners, see http://www.ans.org/honors/recipients/va-studesign). This outstanding record of accomplishment is unmatched by any other nuclear engineering program in the U.S. and clearly confirms the outstanding quality of the UTNE student design program. (Posted 11/19/07)
The UT Department of Nuclear Engineering Advisory Committee met on May 1, 2007 (see picture below). (Posted 5/4/2007)
Front Row (L to R): Thomas Geer (Duke Power), John Auxier (Auxier & Assoc.), Bruce Hunt (Southern Nuclear Operating Company), Dan Keuter (Entergy, Inc.), Michael A. Kuliasha (ORNL), William Martin (University of Michigan). Back Row (L to R): Alex Marion (Nuclear Energy Institute), Jim Rushton (ORNL), Kevin Carroll (BWXT-Y12), Walter Justice (TVA), and Bert Ackermann (Spinlab Utility Instrumentation, Inc.).
Congratulations to Ellen Fisher, administrative support assistant in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, for her induction into the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. Fisher is a graduate student in education with a perfect 4.0 GPA. She expects to receive her MS degree this summer. (May 1, 2007)
Dr. Lawrence Townsend, professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering has been awarded the 2007 COE Teaching Fellow Award and the 2007 COE Research Fellow Award at the 2007 College of Engineering's Awards Banquet on April 13, 2007. (Posted May 1, 2007)
Dr. Belle Upadhyaya, professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering has been awarded the Allen & Hoshall Engineering Faculty Award at the 2007 College of Engineering's Awards Banquet on April 13, 2007. (Posted May 1, 2007)
Dr. Belle Upadhyaya, professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, has been selected to receive the 2007 ASEE Glen Murphy Award at this year's ASEE meeting in Hawaii. (Posted 3/30/07)
1981 BS in NE graduate, Jesse Hill Roberson (right), visited the department on October 6, 2006. Jesse was the first African-American female student in nuclear engineering at UT. She has had several senior management positions during her illustrious career including Exelon Vice-President, DNFSB Director, DOE Assistant Secretary, and CH2Mhill President (Nuclear Business Group), which is her current position. Dr. Dodds (left) remembers her quite well as a very good student academically with outstanding potential for leadership (and he was obviously correct). Jesse currently resides in Naperville, Ill (near Chicago with her husband and daughter. (Posted 10/10/06)
Occasionally, former UTNE graduates simply “drop in” to visit the department. On September 28, 2007, R. J. “Bob” Metzger (on the right) did just that, as Dr. Dodds explained, “I looked up from my desk and there was Bob Metzger…smiling from ear to ear.” Bob is a 1966 BS in NE graduate as is Dr. Dodds. Indeed, they were very good friends in addition to being classmates. “Bob actually taught me how to water ski and he introduced me to the game of golf, which is an affliction that we both still have today.” Mr. Metzger is the Manager of Engineering at the Bettis Naval Facility located in Idaho Falls, Idaho. He will retire next year with 38 years of service. (Posted 9/28/06)
Southern Nuclear Operating Company recently presented a check for $10,000 to The University of Tennessee Nuclear Engineering Department in conjunction with the DOE Matching Grant Program. Pictured left to right are Johnathan Pope, recent UTNE B.S. graduate who now works for Southern Nuclear, Dr. Lee Dodds, UTNE Department Head, James Henkel, President of the UT Student Section of the American Nuclear Society, and Lewis Sumner, Vice President of Southern Nuclear. (Posted 9/28/06)
Dr. Arden Bement, Director of the National Science Foundation, visited The University of Tennessee (UT) on September 12-13, 2006 and presented a UT Nuclear Engineering Department Colloquium entitled “The Globalization of Science and Engineering: Competing and Collaborating.” A video archive of his presentation is located online at http://www.engr.utk.edu/nuclear/colloquia/Archive/. Shown left to right are Dr. Lee Dodds, Head of the UT Nuclear Engineering Department, Dr. Bement, and Dr. Way Kuo, Dean of the UT College of Engineering.
(Posted 9/26/06)
Visitors from Tohoku University in northern Japan visited the UT Nuclear Engineering (UTNE) Department on September 22, 2006 to exchange information on how to educate the public about nuclear power. Shown right to left are Dr. Wes Hines, UTNE Professor of Nuclear Engineering, Dr. Manabu Satou, Professor of Energy Engineering at Tohoku University, one of Dr. Satou's students, and Dr. Lee Dodds, UTNE Department Head. (Posted 9/26/06)
Dr. Larry Townsend, professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, has been appointed to serve on the National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council's Committee on the Evaluation of Radiation Shielding for Space Exploration. Townsend's two-year term as a member of the committee will last through 2008. The first project that the committee will undertake is an "Evaluation of Radiation Shielding for Lunar Exploration."
Townsend has also been awarded a three-year research grant by NASA totaling $416,636. The grant, entitled "Advanced Forecasting Methodologies for Solar Particle Event Radiation Exposures," is for the development of software to be used by NASA mission operators. This unique software will implement methods for forecasting radiation doses from large solar particle events using artificial neural networks and Bayesian inference.
Dr. Wes Hines, also a professor in the nuclear engineering department, will work as a co-Investigator on the funded project.
Townsend recently returned from a visit to the Department of Engineering and System Science at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, where he interacted with faculty and students and presented an invited talk, entitled "Overview of High Energy Neutron and Charged Particle Transport and Interactions." Townsend also presented an overview of the COE's nuclear engineering department. The purpose of his visit was to foster future collaboration between the two departments. (Posted 9/26/06)
Dr. Belle R. Upadhyaya, professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, has recently been elected to Fellow Membership Grade of the American Nuclear Society. Upadhyaya's outstanding contributions to research include studies on nuclear reactor monitoring and diagnosis; original research in signal validation, fault detection and isolation of field devices; advanced signal processing for structural integrity monitoring of steam generators; and the development of fault tolerant control methods. (Posted 9/7/06)
UT Nuclear Engineering graduates David J. Campbell, Myron L. Casada, Vernon H. Guthrie, Matt D. Mowrer, James J. Rooney, and David A. Walker received the Joel Magnussen Innovation Award from the U.S. Coast Guard for their development of the MSRAM system, which is a port security assessment tool. The award was presented on June 28, 2006 by Secretary Michael Jackson of the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen. (Posted 8/30/06)
Dr. Wes Hines, Professor of Nuclear Engineering, has been recognized as a Distinguished Alumni of the Ohio State University College of Engineering and will receive the award September 1, 2006.
The Distinguished Alumni Awards were established by the faculty of the College of Engineering to recognized distinguished achievement on the part of alumni in the field of engineering or architecture by reason of significant inventions, important research or design, administrative leadership, or genius in production. Nominations are judged by the College Committee on Honorary Degrees and Honors on behalf of the College faculty. (Posted 7/12/06)
Michael Roberts was a recipient of the Defense Programs Award of Excellence as part of a team working at the Y-12 National Security Complex (NSC) for BWXT Y-12, L.L.C. in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The team's work involved the design of a Criticality Accident Alarm System (CAAS) for a new facility at the Y-12 NSC. The award was given for "innovative analysis of the CAAS resulting in significant cost savings/avoidance." Michael performed an analysis to show that certain nuclear criticality accidents could not credibly occur within the new facility. This led to a greatly reduced number of CAAS detectors being required in the facility. Roberts is employed by ABS Consulting as a senior risk/reliability engineer. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Tennessee in 1985.
The Defense Programs Award of Excellence was established in 1982 to recognize individuals or teams for significant achievements in quality, productivity, cost savings, safety, or creativity in support of the Nuclear Weapons Program. The annual award program recognizes the contributions of work performed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Defense Programs employees in support of the Stockpile Stewardship Program.
(Posted 7/12/06)
Dr. Larry Townsend, Professor of Nuclear Engineering, has been elected as a Fellow of the Health Physics Society. This honor is bestowed annually on selected senior members of the society who have made significant administrative, educational and/or scientific contributions to the profession of health physics. The Health Physics Society (HPS) is a nonprofit scientific professional organization whose mission is to promote the practice of radiation safety. (Posted 5/9/06)
The UT Department of Nuclear Engineering Advisory Committee met on May 2, 2006 (see picture below). (Posted 5/9/2006)
Front Row (L to R): Pete Planchon (Idaho National Lab), Kenneth Hughey (Entergy, Inc.), Angie Howard (Nuclear Energy Institute), David Jones (Southern Nuclear Company), Michael A. Kuliasha (ORNL), Thomas Geer (Duke Power). Back Row (L to R): Darrel Kohlhorst (BWXT-Y12), Jim Rusthton (ORNL), William Martin (University of Michigan), Bert Ackermann (Spinlab Utility Instrumentation, Inc.), and Larry Bryant (TVA).
(L to R): Dr. Lee Dodds, Matthew R. Beach, James E. Bevins, Brett A. Miller, Cheryl L. Eddy, Adam C. Hetzler, J. Ellen Fisher, Thomas Coppinger
Congratulations to all the students, staff and faculty who received awards at the 2006 College of Engineering Awards Banquet on April 11, 2006. The awards were as follows: The College of Engineering 2006 Research Fellow - Dr. J. Wesley Hines; Professor of the Year Award - Dr. Arthur E. Ruggles; Outstanding Senior Awards - Cheryl Leigh Eddy and Adam Christopher Hetzler; Outstanding Junior Awards - Brett A. Miller and Cole Andrew Gentry; Outstanding Sophomore Awards - Matthew Randall Beach, James Edward Bevins; Outstanding Staff Award - J. Ellen Fisher. (Posted 4/28/06)
Dr. Lee Dodds, IBM Professor of Engineering and Head, UT Nuclear Engineering Department, has been elected to a four-year term on the National Nuclear Accrediting Board for the National Academy of Nuclear Training, the decision-making body that awards accreditation to nuclear utility personnel training programs. (4/7/06)
Two teams of University of Tennessee Nuclear Engineering students won national awards at the American Nuclear Society Student Design Competition held in Washington, D.C. on November 15, 2005. An undergraduate team of six Nuclear Engineering seniors won first place in the contest for their design of a “Two-Step Mercury/Uranium Carbide Target for a Rare Isotope Accelerator” The team was composed of M.W. Francis, the team leader, B.S. Catalanotto, J.M. Cole, G.E. Balagtas, N.J. Devaser, and J.T. Pope. A graduate team of four Nuclear Engineering graduate students won second place for their “Conceptual Design Study of a Rare Isotope Producing Assembly for the Proposed Rare Isotope Accelerator Facility.” The team consisted of R. Woolley, team leader, Z. Faiztompkins, R. Kopenec, and G. Sweder, two of whom are members of the University of Tennessee Distance Education Program. The awards were given for engineering design projects that the students conducted in UT Nuclear Engineering Department courses where they work on real-life projects similar to the projects that they will be working on after graduation. The courses are designed to give students guided experience in team work and original design. The instructor for the 2005 design courses was Dr. M. L. Grossbeck, Research Professor in the UT Nuclear Engineering Department and a former Senior Research Staff Member of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Posted 11/21/05)
Nuclear Engineering is now affiliated with Intercollegiate Graduate Statistics Program. NE graduate students can have a statistics minor or earn a master's degree in statistics while earning the master's or doctoral degrees in nuclear engineering. Dr. Wes Hines, Dr. Ronald Pevey and Dr. Belle Upadhyaya have been approved as IGSP faculty. For more info call 974-2525. (Posted 11/21/05)
Dr. Lawrence W. Townsend, Professor of Nuclear Engineering, has been elected to the grade of Fellow in the American Nuclear Society for outstanding contributions to the advancement of nuclear science and engineering; in particular, for his contributions furthering the understanding of cosmic radiation interactions with matter and exceptional technical leadership in the development of interaction models, transport codes and engineering methods for space radiation protection. (Posted 11/21/05)
Dr. H.L. Dodds, IBM Professor of Engineering and Nuclear Engineering Department Head, recently attended an International Topical Meeting on Mathematics and Computations in Avignon, France, where he chaired two sessions on Reactor Physics Computational Methods. The topical meeting was well attended with approximately 350 attendees from 33 different countries. Posted 10/14/05)
The UT Nuclear Engineering Department supports the many cultural and extra-curricula activities that NE students undertake as they pursue their degree programs. Two of our BSNE students, Julia Danzer and Stephanie McKee, are talented members of the UT Dance Ensemble. The picture below was taken immediately after the Spring Recital of the Dance Ensemble, which Dr. Dodds attended. L-R: Julia, Dr. Dodds, and Stephanie. (Posted 08/25/05)
Dr. Belle Upadhyaya, Professor of Nuclear Engineering, participated in the
Conference on Heat Exchanger Fouling and Cleaning - Challenges and
Opportunities, June 5-10, 2005, and presented a paper entitled, "Data-Based Monitoring and Experimental Studies of Particulate Fouling in Industrial
Heat Exchangers." The conference was held in Kloster Irsee, Germany, and
was sponsored by Engineering Conferences International (ECI). The research
and development reported by Dr. Upadhyaya has been performed under a
contract with Emerson Process Management, Eden Prairie, MN.
(Posted 6/13/05)
Dr. Lee Dodds, IBM Professor of Engineering and Head of the UT Nuclear
Engineering Department, has been elected to the Board of Directors of
the Nuclear Energy Institute. The Nuclear Energy Institute is the policy
organization of the nuclear energy and technologies industry and
participates in both the national and global policy-making process.
NEI’s objective is to ensure the formation of policies that promote the
beneficial uses of nuclear energy and technologies in the United States
and around the world. Two other newly elected NEI Board Members are John
A. Fees, president and chief operating officer, BWX Technologies Inc.
and A.W. (Bud) Wendorf, chairman, president and chief executive officer,
Sargent & Lundy. (Posted 5/31/05)
Jamie B. Garvey (a senior in Nuclear Engineering) has been awarded the Hilton A. Smith Graduate
Fellowship for the academic year 2005-06. Congratulations Jamie! (Posted 5/4/05)
U.S. News and World Report recently released its rankings of graduate programs in the U.S. The University of Tennessee Nuclear Engineering Graduate Program is ranked No.10 in the U.S. The UT nuclear engineering program is also the second largest nuclear engineering program in the U.S., based on total student enrollment of both undergraduate and graduate students. Only Texas A&M is bigger, but everything in Texas is big :-) (Posted 4/1/05)
The College of Engineering was represented with distinction by 16 entries in the undergraduate research exhibition last Friday. The participants from the Department of Nuclear Engineering were: Dustin Garvey, Comparison of Monte Carlo and Bootstrap Uncertainty Estimation Methods for Process Equipment Monitoring, Dr. J. Wesley Hines; Robert Joseph, Translating the Pyxiv Input Deck into an Input File for Bonari, Nitan XSDRNPM, Dr. Ronald Pevey; Jimmy Thatcher, Structural Integrity Monitoring of Steam Generators and Heat Exchangers Using Piezo-Electric Devices, Dr. Belle Upadhyaya. (Posted 4/4/05)
Dr. Wes Hines, Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering, Dr. Kurt Gramoll from the University of Oklahoma and Mary Kocak from Pellissippi State Community College have been selected to receive the Evans Instructional Paper Award from the Southeast Section of the American Society of Engineering Education. This award is given to the authors of the most outstanding paper pertaining to engineering education. The paper entitled "Delivery and Assessment of Teaching Statics over the Internet to Community College Students", presents the results of work funded through a National Science Foundation grant: "Transfer Facilitation for Engineering Students". Dr. Hines will present the paper next week during the 2005 ASEE_SE Annual Conference luncheon in Chattanooga. (Posted 3/28/05)
Dr. Wes Hines, Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering, presented a seminar series to students and faculty from several Brazilian Universities, and industrial researchers from Petrobras (Brazilian petroleum company) in Campo Grande, Brazil at the Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul. The series of four presentations covered two days and centered around the use of "Empirical Kernel Methods for Equipment Condition Monitoring". The techniques will be utilized to monitor the Bolivia-Brazil natural gas pipeline which transports gas through distances of over 3000 kilometers. (Posted 3/28/05)
Dr. Belle Upadhyaya, Professor of Nuclear Engineering, made a presentation
about “Science and Energy” to the 8th grade science class at The King’s
Academy on March 17, 2005. He discussed nuclear energy and the benefits of
radiation. Dr Upadhyaya demonstrated the measurement of radioactivity using
a high school experimental kit developed by the Department.
(Posted 3/18/05)
Dr. Art Ruggles has been selected as an ASME Fellow.
Dr. Lawrence Townsend
has just been designated a UT College of Engr. Research Fellow for the second consecutive year. He is 1 of 8 selected for 2005 from our college faculty, which
numbers 130. (Posted 3/18/05)
Dr. Mario Fontana has received the Tommy Thompson Award from the American Nuclear Society "In recognition of his many contributions toward improving the safety of nuclear power plants. His outstanding technical work and his wisdom in guiding important research programs have greatly enhanced our understanding of crucial safety issues." The award was given at the ANS annual meeting in Pittsburgh in June, 2004. He also has a joint paper with Larry Miller and others entitled: "Assessment of Power Reactors for Implementation in the 2010 -2015 Time Frame," American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, June, 2004 (with others) and "Sustainability of Nuclear and Alternative Energy Sources, "American Nuclear Society Meeting, Washington, DC, December, 2004 (with others). (Posted 3/18/05)
Dr.
Larry Townsend, a professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering
(NE), presented an invited paper entitled "Space Radiation Hazards
on Human Missions to the Moon and Mars" at the 2004 Winter Meeting
of the American Geophysical Union, held December 12-17, 2004, in San
Francisco. Dr. Townsend, has also been named as the Measurements Team
Leader for the CRaTER radiation detector, which was just selected by
NASA as part of the payload package for the Lunar Reconnaissence Orbiter
spacecraft, scheduled for launch in 2009. The CRaTER consortium is led
by the Professor Harlan Spence, Boston University (BU) Department of
Astronomy and Center for Space Physics. Other participants in the consortium
besides NE and BU include MIT, the Aerospace Corporation, the Air Force
Research Lab and the NOAA Space Environment Center. (Posted 1/11/05)
The
U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Engineering Education Research (NEER)
program has awarded a three-year grant to The University of Tennessee
for research on "Autonomous Control of Space Reactor Systems."
The research is being performed in the Nuclear Engineering Department,
with Dr. Belle R. Upadhyaya, Professor of Nuclear Engineering, as the
principal investigator. The grant supports graduate and undergraduate
students in Nuclear Engineering. One of the objectives under NASA's
Project Prometheus is to develop fission power systems for propulsion
and for powering spacecraft subsystems and science payload. Future deep
space missions require increased power for traveling farther for long-term
missions, up to twenty years in duration.
The research is performed in collaboration with the Nuclear Science & Technology Division of ORNL, and is focused on the development of space reactor modeling, long-term degradation anticipation in critical devices, and the design of an autonomous control system with self-tuning, reconfigurable, and fault tolerant features.
After
graduating from UT in 1997, Shawn Steele moved to Charleston, South
Carolina to work for Bechtel Bettis, Inc. as an instructor in the Navy
nuclear program. He recently transferred to Newport News, Virginia to
work at the Newport News Shipyard overseeing the construction and overhaul
of the nuclear powered aircraft carriers. The picture shown on the left
was taken when Shawn was a UTNE graduate student. He is discussing his
M.S. research project with Dr. Tom Shannon, Research Professor.
Dr.
Wes Hines was in Norway September 26 through October 1st, where he
served as a U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) technical committee for Online Sensor Performance Monitoring
for Nuclear Power Plants. He also presented an invited paper and is
the author for a chapter of the Technical Document.
(Posted 10/8/04)
Dr.
Belle Upadhyaya, Professor of Nuclear Engineering, presented a paper
titled, "United States - Brazil Cooperative Research in Nuclear
Reactor Monitoring and Diagnosis," at the Americas Nuclear Energy
Symposium (ANES 2004), October 3-6, 2004, Miami Beach, Florida. The
paper was co-authored by Dr. Wes Hines, Nuclear Engineering Department
and Dr. Daniel Ting, IPEN, Sao Paulo, Brazil. The symposium was sponsored
by the U.S. Department ofEnergy and the American Nuclear Society.
(Posted 10/8/04)
The
September 2004 issue of Nuclear News featured an extensive
interview with Dr. Larry Townsend, professor in the Department of
Nuclear Engineering, entitled "Barge Transporting of Modular
Reactors." The article, which was also featured on the magazine's
cover, describes major nuclear research by NE professors Townsend,
Larry Miller and Fred Mynatt, and their graduate students. The research
was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy Research
Initiative (NERI). Nuclear News is a major engineering news
magazine which is published by the American Nuclear Society. (Posted
10/01/04)
UT Nuclear
Engineering seniors Tyler Cornell, Ryan Giar, Youssef Sharara, Scott
Outten, and Igor Petrusky have been selected as a Finalist in a national
design contest sponsored annually by the American Nuclear Society
for their design project entitled "Advanced High Temperature
Reactor (AHT-667)." Their advisor for the project was Dr. Fred
Mynatt, Research Professor of Nuclear Engineering. UT Nuclear Engineering
students have been designated as Finalists in the annual contest in
26 of the past 28 years (see http://www.ans.org/honors/recipients/va-studesign),
which is a record that is unmatched by any other nuclear engineering
program in the U.S. (Posted 08/30/04)
The following
UT Nuclear Engineering students received scholarships for 2004-2005,
which were awarded by the American Nuclear Society via national competition
among nuclear engineering students from all across the U.S.: Thomas
Miller received the Everitt P. Blizard Graduate Scholarship ($3,000);
Jennifer Cole received the Decommissioning, Decontamination and Reutilization
Scholarship ($2,000); and Kevin Taylor received the John and Muriel
Landis Scholarship ($4,000). (Posted 08/30/04)
Dr.
Lee Dodds, UTNE Department Head, visited several nuclear organizations
in and around Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 19-22 including CNEN,
IRD, IEN, and ELECTRONUCLEAR, who is the owner of the ANGRA nuclear
power plant. Financial support for the visit was provided by a grant
from the National Science Foundation to promote and enhance R&D
collaboration between UTNE and Brazilian nuclear organizations. Over
the course of the visit he made contact and/or officially met over
40 nuclear professionals among the four organizations listed above
and gave three presentations during the visit, one on July 19 to the
CNEN/IRD organization and two on July 20 to the IEN organization.
On July 21, he toured the ANGRA 2 nuclear power plant, which is about
a 3-hour drive from Rio. The ANGRA plant tour also included a visit
to their simulator training facility, which is used by other nuclear
utilities from all around the world, and their environmental laboratory.
(Posted 08/18/04)
Dr. Lee Dodds,
UT Dean of Engineering Dr. Way Kuo, and ORNL Deputy Director Dr. Lee
Riedinger visited several nuclear organizations in Taiwan on April
19-23 including National Tsing Hua University, where a Memorandum
of Understanding was signed to promote future collaboration between
UTNE and the Nuclear Engineering Department at National Tsing Hua
University. Financial support for the visit was provided by the Taiwanese
Government. Dr. Kuo was the keynote speaker at a Symposium to celebrate
the 40th Anniversary of the Nuclear Engineering Department at National
Tsing Hua University, where he received a BS and MS in Nuclear Engineering.
Dr. Dodds also visited several nuclear organizations in mainland China
the following week (April 26-30) including Tsinghua University in
Beijing and the Pebble Bed Reactor near Beijing. (Posted 08/18/04)
Dr. Wesley
Hines, Dr. Larry Miller and Dr. Larry Townsend of the Department of
Nuclear Engineering, participated in the 10th International Conference
on Radiation Shielding and the 13th American Nuclear Society Topical
Meeting on Radiation Protection and Shielding in Funchal, Portugal,
May 9-14, 2004. They presented several papers including "Implications
of the Space Radiation Environment for Human Exploration in Deep Space,"
"SPE Dose Prediction Using Locally Weighted Regression,"
"HETC Radiation Transport Code Development for Cosmic Ray Shielding
Applications in Space," "NASA Space Radiation Transport
Code Development Consortium," "Multiple Solar Particle Event
Dose Time Profile Predictions Using Bayesian Inference," "Overview
of Secondary Neutron Production Relevant to Shielding in Space,"
"A Reassessment of Galileo Radiation Exposure in the Jupiter
Magnetosphere," "Shielding for a Cyclotron Used for Medical
Isotope Production in China," Micromegas Neutron Beam Monitor
Neutronics," "Modeling of Composite Neutron Scintillators,"
"Comparison of Treatment Planning Dose Calculations with Measurements
and Monte Carlo Calculations in a RANDO Phanton," "Using
Microdosimetry to Understand the Clinical Outcomes of Boron Neutron
Capture Therapy." (Posted 06/08/04)
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Photographs
have been added to the Nuclear Engineering
Photo Album including pictures from our recent commencement
reception held on May 8, 2004 and from the Open Forum on April
28, 2004. The Open Forum is an annual event that is similiar to
a Town Meeting in which students provide oral feedback to the
faculty on curriculum, teaching, research, facilities, administration,
and any other area of importance to students. Written feedback
is also provided annual via student surveys. (Posted 06/08/04)
Both
UTNE entries in the 2003 Student Design Contest sponsored by the American
Nuclear Society (ANS) were selected as finalists. Undergraduate students
James DeGolyer, Thomas Woody, Marcus Balanky, Amanda Desmone, and Robert
Bivins were selected for their design project entitled, "HERMES:
Helium Cooled Reactor and Mars Exploration Station." Graduate students
Steve Bell, Russ Willis, Steve Frederiksen, Scott Holcombe, and Brye
Mitchell were selected for their project entitled, "Mars Advanced
Reactor, Integrated, Direct Coupled (MARID): A Mars Rover Recharging
Station." The students performed their work under the supervision
of Dr. Fred Mynatt, Research Professor of Nuclear Engineering. UTNE
students have been selected as finalists in the annual design contest
in 25 for the past 27 years, which is a record that is unmatched by
any other nuclear engineering program in the U.S. The finalists for
the past 27 years are listed online at www.ans.org/honors/recipients/va-studesign.
(Posted 05/21/04)
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Congratulations
to all the students and faculty who received awards at the 2004 College
of Engineering Awards Banquet on April 13, 2004. The awards were as follows:
The Leon and Nancy Cole Superior Teaching Award - Dr. J. Wesley Hines;
The College of Engineering 2004 Teaching Fellow - Dr. J. Wesley Hines;
Professor of the Year Award - Dr. Laurence F. Miller; Outstanding Senior
Award - Ryan C. Giar, Outstanding Junior Awards - Caleb D. Bastian, Jamie
B. Coble, Adam C. Hetzler; Outstanding Sophomore Awards - Johnathan D.
Chavers, Cole A. Gentry, Christopher A. Terrill, Kevin R. Williamson.
(Posted 5/18/04)
Mario Fontana
will be the recipient of the 2004 Tommy Thompson Award. The award will
be presented by Fred Sears, chairman of the ANS Nuclear Installations
Safety Division (NISD), during the NISD luncheon which is scheduled for
June 16, 2004 during the ANS Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. (Posted
5/14/04)
Dr. Belle Upadhyaya,
Professor of Nuclear Engineering, participated in the High School Career
Day on April 30, at The King's Academy, Seymour, TN. He made presentations
to more than 60 students about the UT College of Engineering programs
and answered specific questions about Nuclear and Radiological Engineering.
(Posted 5/7/04)
One of our secretaries,
Ellen Fisher, is a part-time student in the UT Sociology Dept. She is
obviously a very good student because she was just awarded one of three
outstanding undergraduate awards provided by the Sociology Dept. She is
49, has two grown children, and lives alone. (Posted 5/7/04)
UTNE graduate
student Thomas Miller won Outstanding Presentation (2nd place) in the
Mathematics and Computation Group at the 2004 American Nuclear Society Student Conference
held April 1 - 3, 2004 in Madison, Wisconsin. The title of the presentation
was "Comprehensive Cross Section Database Development for Generalized
Three-Dimensional Radiation Transport Codes". There were 11 presentations
in this group, and the other universities
represented in this group are University of New Mexico, North Carolina
State University, Purdue University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Texas A&M University, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Penn State University,
and University of California Berkeley. (Posted 4/12/04)
Professor Larry
Townsend of the Department of Nuclear Engineering, has agreed to serve
as a member of the NASA Task Group to Examine Radiation Issues for Manned
Lunar and Mars Missions. The purpose of this team is to develop a list
of space physics/space weather areas requiring further research or study
in order to support the design and implementation of manned lunar and
Mars missions. NASA will use this information to help identify how existing
and future Living With a Star missions and research can support these
exploration goals. Dr. Townsend has also been invited to give a plenary
presentation at the 10th International Conference on Radiation Shielding
at Madeira, Portugal, May 9-14, 2004. The title of his invited presentation
is "Implications of the Space Radiation Environment for Human Exploration
in Deep Space." (Posted 4/2/04)
Michael E. Howard,
UT Nuclear Engineering Alumnus (BS in 1992, MS in 1995) and his wife Donna
have initiated a new undergraduate scholarship for an outstanding student
in Nuclear Engineering at The University of Tennessee. Michael is a Certified
Medical Physicist at the Watson Clinic near Tampa Florida. He specialized
in Radiological Engineering in his MS studies at UT, which were performed
under the supervision Dr. Peter Groer, Professor of Nuclear Engineering.
The scholarship funding commitment from the Howards is $2,000 per year
for at least five years. The faculty, staff, and students of the UT Nuclear
Engineering Department are deeply grateful to the Howards for this very
generous gift. (Posted 3/19/04)
Dr. Wes Hines,
Associate Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, has been
chosen the recipient of the Southeast Section of the American Society
of Engineering Education's Outstanding Mid-Career Teaching Award. He received
the award at the ASEE Awards Banquet on April 5. (Posted 3/5/04)
USS
Tennessee Submarine Crew Receives UT Gift
KNOXVILLE -- Sailors onboard the USS Tennessee, a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine, have received a special gift of support from the University of Tennessee. UT's Office of Public Relations sent Tennessee t-shirts to the sub's 170 crewmembers before they shipped out recently from the U.S. Naval Base at King's Bay, Ga. "These shirts will be such a nice morale booster for the crew of the USS Tennessee while they are away," USS Tennessee Ombudsman Sheryl Speight said. "To know they are recognized and appreciated for the job they do means a lot to them. "I would like to personally thank the university and the great state of Tennessee for supporting their namesake USS TENNESSEE and its sailors."
Back Row: SN Black, STS3 Seymore, ET2 King, ET1 Baker,
ET1 Alcorn, MM3 Boyd
Seated Middle: MM1 Sisk, MSC Brimley, MS2 Smith, MM1 McCoy
Front Row: LTjg Oliver, CDR A.J. Camp, Jr. (Commanding Officer), SN Begorich
Speight contacted UT in March to see if garments bearing the "Tennessee" name were available. The shirts, sponsored by AM South Student Lending and SunTrust Bank, had been used by UT's admissions department for recruiting and college fairs. Those sent to the USS Tennessee are leftovers from last year's sessions. Lt. David Oliver, is an engineering officer on the sub and a UT nuclear engineering graduate from Collierville, Tenn. "My experience at UT helped prepare me for what I am doing now. It gave me a broader understanding of the nuclear field," Oliver said. "I thank UT for that academic experience and the entire crew thanks them for the t-shirts."
Copyright © 2002 Office of Public Relations University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN 37996. The name, nickname, trademarks, logos, etc. (marks) of The University of Tennessee are its property and may not be used without permission.
The
Department presented four one-week short courses during the 38th Tennessee
Industries Week (TIW-38) to over twenty-four students from the US and
abroad. Courses were presented on Bayesian Reliability Analysis by Dr.
Peter Groer, Radiological Assessment by Dr. Larry Miller et al., Nuclear
Criticality Safety by Dr. Lee Dodds et al., and Monte Carlo Analysis by
Dr. Ron Pevey. The 39th Tennessee Industries Week is tentatively scheduled
for August 9-13, 2004.
The
Department continues to attract outstanding Visiting Scholars from abroad
who work with our faculty and graduate students on various research projects.
The Scholars are usually supported by their home institutions or their
home governments, or other institutions such as the National Research
Council or the International Atomic Energy Agency. During the past year
we have been fortunate to have Visiting Scholars from Brazil, China, Morocco,
Russia, and South Korea.