News and Announcement
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.