Dr. Ayman Hawari, Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Director of the Nuclear Reactor Program, has been appointed to the Nuclear Data (ND) Subcommittee of the National Science Advisory Committee (NSAC). This subcommittee is charged with providing official advice to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) on the national program for basic nuclear science research. Reliable nuclear data plays an essential role in the success of federal missions such as non-proliferation, nuclear forensics, homeland security, national defense, space exploration, clean energy generation, and scientific research.

The ND Subcommittee will assist NSAC in developing a strategic plan with prioritized recommendations to guide federal investment in the U.S. Nuclear Data Program (USNDP). This will consist of two separate steps and corresponding reports that will serve as a basis to inform the strategic plan –

• Assess USNDP Status, which would include the following actions:
  • Assess and document recent achievements in nuclear data and their impact;
  • Survey current and future federal and non-federal needs for reliable, accurate, secure, accessible nuclear data; and,
  • Assess the role, competitiveness, and importance of the USNDP in an international context.
• Based on the USNDP Status Report, provide recommendations for maintaining effective stewardship of nuclear data, which includes the following actions:
  • Identify challenges for nuclear data stewardship in the future, including identifying and prioritizing the most compelling opportunities to enhance and advance NP stewardship of nuclear data and the impact if those opportunities can be realized;
  • Describe possible ways the Nuclear Data (ND) community can work to train and retain a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce capable of sustaining the U.S. ND enterprise; and,
  • Identify access needs for facilities and instrumentation, crosscutting opportunities with other federal programs, and potentially mutually beneficial interactions with other domestic and international stakeholders.

NSAC is chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).

Dr. Hawari is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  He performs experimental and computational investigation (simulations) to understand the fundamentals of the interaction of radiation with matter and the resulting ramifications that impact the engineering of nuclear systems. Currently, his research group conducts measurements and simulations (using ab initio and molecular dynamics methods) to investigate the scattering of thermal neutrons in matter and to generate thermal neutron scattering cross section data. In addition, they apply atomistic modeling techniques and develop experiments to study the behavior of accident tolerant fuel in the extreme radiation and temperature environments of a nuclear reactor. Hawari’s group is also engaged in the validation and benchmark of modern nuclear reactor simulation tools in support of transient testing of nuclear fuel. All these thrust areas directly support the development of Advanced Nuclear Reactors.