The Nuclear Engineering Advisory Council (NEDAC) and its Subcommittee on the Undergraduate Program met last week. Members represent utilities, engineering firms, national laboratories, international organizations and peer academic programs. This annual consultation provides feedback on a vast array of topics – recruitment, retention, scholarships and awards, peer partnerships, space allocations, faculty and student research as well as alumni development.
In addition, oral presentations by 7 senior design teams were judged –
BEST ORAL PRESENTATION
BWRX-300 Load Follow
Faculty: Dr. Robert Hayes
External Sponsors: Dr. Christer Dahlgren (GE Power)
Student Design Team: Anna Deak, Andy Jones, Benjamin Laramee, Netra Patel, Matthew Sanderford, and Gray Taylor
BEST SENIOR DESIGN POSTER
Load Pattern Design Optimization with a Focus on High-Enriched Fuel for a 3-Loop Westinghouse PWR
Faculty: Drs. Maria Avramova & Kostadin Ivanov
External Sponsors: Mr. Baxter Durham and Mr. Shuang Du (Westinghouse)
Student Design Team: Bryson Groccia, Grant Joiner, Cameron Maras, Ashley Scoville, Scot Treadway, and Gerald Sheppard
Design and Optimize Molybdenum-99 Production Capability
Faculty: Drs. Ayman Hawari and Jason Hou
External Sponsors: Dr. Ugur Mertyurek (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Student Design Team: Jesse Blankenship, Scott Burke, Matthew Filer, Graham Harger, Kartiga Jordan
Design of a Critical Benchmark Experiment for Molten Sodium Coolant
Faculty: Dr. John Mattingly
External Sponsors: Dr. Jesson Hutchinson (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Student Design Team: Haaken Lysne, Irfan Mekic, Ashley Meyer, Jacob Perry, and Gabriel Thomas
Core Design using PRISM and Coupling Formosa to PRISM
Faculty: Dr. Jason Hou
External Sponsors: Drs. John Strumpell and Joseph Deciantis (Framatome)
Student Design Team: Joseph Ferrell, Ulric Groves, Donald McGinnis, James Sineath, and Joshua Tieken
Design of an Autonomous Control of a SMR
Faculty: Dr. Nam Dinh
External Sponsors: Drs. Jeffrey Lane (Zachry Nuclear Engineering) & Cristian Rabiti (Idaho National Laboratory)
Student Design Team: Tyler Alfonzetti, Kenley Brown, Nathaniel Brown, Kai Duemmler, Makeiba Lewis, and John McDuffie
Optimize a Small, Modular Water Reactor System using VERA-CS
Faculty: Drs. Dmitriy Anistratov, Maria Avramova, Scott Palmtag, Ivan Maldonado & Larry Miller (latter two from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville)
External Sponsors: Dr. Ugur Mertyurek (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Student Design Team: Jacob Blevins, Trevor Collis, Oluwadamilola Fasina, Devonte’ Hinton, and Ciara Rice.
Research posters included work from COBRA-TF Users’ Group (CTF), Reactor Dynamics and Fuel Modelling Group (RDFMG), Consortium for Nuclear Power (CNP), Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL), Consortium for Nonproliferation Enabling Capabilities (CNEC), Retrospective Dosimetry and Nuclear Assay (RDNA), and Radiation Detector Materials and Device Group, Multiphase Research Group (MPRG).
And a recognition dinner acknowledged the academic year accomplishments of students, staff and faculty.