Titans Of Nuclear | Interviewing World Experts on Nuclear Energy

1) Nam Dinh shares his path to nuclear engineering and the international education and research that kicked off his career 2) Why nuclear reactors were not originally designed with failure scenarios in mind and how that has changed 3) Nam reviews how current research projects are changing the way technology and simulation impact the design and licensing of nuclear reactors

1) Mohamed Bourham’s path to a career in nuclear from Egypt to Europe to North Carolina State University 2) Mohamed reviews his many areas of research, including electrothermal propulsion, radiation, waste, and material science 3) How dry cask storage for spent fuel has performed so far and why there are different ideas about nuclear waste storage 4) Mohamed explains how fusion is controlled with magnetic fields and the impact it has on materials in the fusion reactors

1) Jacob Eapen recalls his time working on safety analysis of the advanced heavy water reactor at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center in India 2) How Jacob moved into the U.S. nuclear academic and industrial spaces to focus on computational material science 3) Jacob’s research projects in the material science space includes analysis of high temperature properties of UO2 fuel 4) Jacob explains why new fuels are being developed and some of the challenges faced in choosing a material for the fuel cladding

1) Increasing measurement accuracy with gamma rays 2) Understanding cross sections, thermal neutrons and fast neutrons 3) The PULSTAR research reactor design and how it is used to produce positrons 4) Demonstrating inherent safety with small research reactors

1) The difference between plasma and gas 2) How fusion differs from fission 3) How plasma enables low heat molecule deconstruction 4) The current and future uses of plasma for industry manufacturing and advancements

1) Yousry Azmy recalls his path to academia in the nuclear space and explains how neutrons interact in a nuclear reactor 2) Yousry Azmy discusses his research in solving the transport equation on unstructured grids and explains the levels of a reactor transport problem

1) The Russian VVER and BN-800 designs 2) Developing optimization methods for the VVER at Penn State 3) How a lack of scientific support in Bulgaria caused nuclear scientists to move to western countries 4) Developing benchmarks with high fidelity simulations

1) How radiation changes materials within a reactor 2) The advancement of electron-beam welding and the potential to decrease cost and extend reactor lifetimes 3) Strengthening materials by precisely deforming crystal structures with radiation 4) The need to deploy technological advancements to move the nuclear industry forward

1) Robert explains how he first became interested in nuclear engineering and what sparked his interest in academia 2) Robert’s path to becoming an expert in radiation detection 3) Robert reflects on his time in Washington as an advisor to the NNSA and how it brought him back to Purdue University as a full-time faculty member 4) A highlight of the Purdue University reactor and some of the current research projects utilizing the facility, including projects in physics and health science

1) Allen’s early work in prevention of mutual interference in the naval reactors submarine force 2) How Allen transitioned from being a naval submarine officer to a biomedical graduate student studying modification of biological cells 3) How Allen’s research on electromagnetic interference at GE has been applied to create a non-linear transmission line at Purdue 4) Impacts on nano structures caused by intersections of different mechanisms in electron emissions and gas breakdown

1) Jason Harris reflects on how his early interest in biology led to a career in nuclear engineering 2) Jason leans into health physics and how radionuclides are distributed throughout the environment 3) A comprehensive look at nuclear power plant emissions and the birth of the nuclear security field 4) Methods of analyzing and assessing security culture at organizations and how it impacts risk at a nuclear facility

(1) How Three Mile Island sparked Juan’s interest in nuclear power and his journey to becoming a strategist for the Army’s Logistics Innovation Agency (2) Saving lives and combating climate change by improving Army logistics by adopting nuclear power (3) The current progress in developing a small modular mobile nuclear power plant prototype (4) The importance of electrifying the military to maintain the technological edge NOTE: Juan Vitali's opinions do not represent the U.S. Army's position.

1) Lane's initial interest in nuclear and his college coursework that led him to teaching at Virginia Commonwealth University. 2) He worked, interned, and conducted research all over the field of nuclear in startups and laboratories, but eventually found his place in academia. 3) Lane encourages people to advocate for nuclear and talks about lessons he passes onto his students. 4) Lane discusses the future of nuclear domestically and around the world.

1) How nuclear material neutrons are measured to verify amounts 2) The difference between plutonium-239 and plutonium-240 in the context of nuclear weapons 3) Life in the UAE as a nuclear postdoc 4) Decreasing the attractiveness of plutonium for weapons use with neptunium

1) James' career at Dominion and as a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University 2) How the Three Mile Island meltdown occurred and the more demanding safety culture that emerged 3) The potential for Probabilistic Risk Assessments to shift the safety culture 4) How the Final Safety Analysis Report and significant regulatory delays are harming the industry