Texas A&M Engineering News

Students work around the clock to design a more inclusive campus during the 2018 Diversity Hackathon

Wed, 07 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

With only 24 hours on the clock, students came together to design and develop ideas to help make the Texas A&M University campus more inclusive.

The 2018 Diversity Hackathon brought students from many disciplines at Texas A&M to the Langford Architecture Center on Feb. 2-3, where they worked overnight to help turn spaces on campus into more welcoming environments for all people.

Cecilia Giusti, associate dean for outreach and diversity in the College of Architecture and head of the Diversity Council, launched the Diversity Hackathon four years ago. The inaugural hackathon featured a partnership with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the College of Engineering continues to play an important role in the event with a majority of the participants being engineering students.

“For 24 hours they talk about what it means to be diverse, what is an inclusive approach, and how to talk better about inclusion and diversity,” Giusti said. “[And] they actually create or produce something. Even if they don’t win anything, the whole exercise is fantastic—it’s magic.”

One team of general engineering freshmen worked to develop a tool to help the visually impaired better navigate campus. Team members prototyped a device that could slip onto the back of a pair of glasses and connect to a phone, which could then use the campus Wi-Fi to pinpoint the wearer’s location. The device would then communicate information through vibrations against the bone in the back of the ear.

“It would notify you of different obstacles around campus and different buildings or streets so that a person who was visually impaired would be aware of their surroundings and know which way to go without needing to look at a map,” said Jaxon Tucker.

There were six challenges teams could choose from provided by different programs across campus. The College of Engineering asked students to focus on the Zachry Engineering Education Complex and how to make it more accessible for students with hearing, visual or physical impairments.

“It’s going to be a world-class, state-of-the-art building, and I was hoping that students might come up with some concepts to ensure that all of our students are welcome and can participate at the same level,” said Debra Dandridge, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station and engineering accessibility coordinator.

To help with the creation process, students had access to several resources, including 3-D printers and other tools provided by the College of Architecture. One team took up the challenge to create an open space for communication by developing an interactive screen to help people share concerns and ideas in a more accessible way.

“We’re going to have an interface for people to share their ideas through texts,” said junior computer science engineering student Muin Momin. “We have a phone number set up and people can text complaints or something they like about the space that they’re in, and that will display as a word cloud on the screen so everyone can see what’s going on and the owners of that space can get ideas on how to improve it.”

Being a part of the hackathon may also help students after graduation. Dr. J. Michael Moore, an instructional assistant professor in the computer science and engineering department, said industry is showing more interest in accessibility and expects graduates to be prepared to create these universally designed, accessible products.

“This hackathon is a fantastic opportunity for our students in engineering to not only try and do inventive ideas in a short period of time but also to be creative and innovative, and be ready and thinking that way, before they go out in industry,” Moore said.

Texas A&M Engineering and Alamo Colleges District co-enrollment program to begin offering classes fall 2018

Thu, 01 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

Texas A&M University, Chevron and Alamo Colleges District will enroll the first cohort of students for the Texas A&M-Chevron Engineering Academy at Alamo Colleges District in fall 2018. This innovative co-enrollment partnership was developed to address the state’s growing need for engineers. Qualified students will be admitted to the Texas A&M College of Engineering, complete the first two years of coursework at an Alamo Colleges District college and finish their engineering degrees in College Station, Texas. The program will begin accepting student applications March 1.

The Texas A&M-Chevron Engineering Academy at Alamo Colleges District allows students to remain close to home for their first two years while pursuing one of 19 majors within the College of Engineering at Texas A&M. This program is generously supported by Chevron.

“We are pleased to offer students in the Alamo Colleges District a unique pathway toward a first-rate degree from an engineering college ranked among the top 10 in the world,” said Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp. “Our goal is to attract the very best students to Texas A&M Engineering, even if circumstances require them to stay close to home for the first two years of college. These students will be Aggies in San Antonio from day one.”

“We are always eager to offer our students new opportunities for continuing their education once they graduate from one of the colleges of the Alamo Colleges District,” said Alamo Colleges District Chancellor Dr. Bruce Leslie. “Our latest partnership with Texas A&M University and Chevron will offer our students a pathway to a bachelor’s degree in a field with excellent job growth and high salaries, benefiting not only the students, but the state’s economy as well,” he added.

In Texas, the projected need for engineers in the workforce is 53,000 by 2024. To meet this need, universities and two-year colleges will need to work together to bridge the gap and attract and retain students who are interested in STEM fields. Engineering students in the Engineering Academy program enroll in math, science and core curriculum courses through Alamo Colleges District and have the unique opportunity to enroll in Texas A&M engineering courses taught by Texas A&M faculty at Northeast Lakeview College, part of Alamo Colleges District.

“Northeast Lakeview College is proud to be home for this program,” said Dr. Veronica Garcia, Northeast Lakeview College president. “This new program will help address the need for more programming in high-demand STEM fields and provide an opportunity for more students, in San Antonio and surrounding areas, to pursue engineering coursework.”

Chevron has donated $5 million to support Texas A&M-Chevron Engineering Academies across the state at Austin Community College; Houston Community College, Spring Branch in Houston; Texas Southmost College in Brownsville; El Centro and Richland Colleges in Dallas; and Alamo Colleges District in San Antonio.

“Chevron is committed to increasing access to, and the quality of, education around the world. We are proud to partner with Texas A&M on this important initiative to help ensure an educated and skilled workforce,” said Shariq Yosufzai, Chevron vice president of ombuds, diversity and inclusion and university and association relations.

“Our longstanding relationship with Texas A&M, through support of the Engineering Academy initiative, will help provide opportunities in the field of engineering for many underrepresented and first-generation college students,” Yosufzai said. “Partnering with Texas A&M, a top source of engineering hires for Chevron, to help provide opportunities in the field of engineering will support our efforts to help build the diverse workforce of tomorrow that will be required to meet the energy needs of the future."

Texas A&M Engineering Vice Chancellor and Dean Dr. M. Katherine Banks said the academies have the potential to reach beyond the typical pathways for access to a top-ranked engineering program.

“The academies, through our partnership with Chevron and the two-year colleges, provide new pathways to a first-rate engineering education,” Banks said. “Through this co-enrollment program, students can live at home for the first two years of college without postponing their participation in an engineering program that is highly regarded by employers across the country.”

For more information about how to apply and other details, visit /academies or email engineeringacademies@tamu.edu.

Nuclear engineering students attend short course at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:00:00 CST

Recently a group of 12 Texas A&M University nuclear engineering graduate students from the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute (NSSPI) traveled to Tennessee to participate in a short course in non-destructive assay (NDA) techniques.

The short course was offered at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in their Safeguards Laboratory. It consisted of lectures and hands-on experience with safeguards instrumentation and software, providing the students with practical understanding of a number of NDA techniques used for measurements and characterization of special nuclear material in international safeguards applications. This experience is intended to supplement the material taught at Texas A&M in the “Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Material Safeguards” (NUEN 651) and “Radiation Detection and Nuclear Materials Measurement” (NUEN 605) classes taken by all students pursuing a graduate degree with a specialization in nuclear nonproliferation.

While in Oak Ridge the group had the opportunity to tour various nuclear facilities at ORNL, including the High Flux Isotope Reactor, the Radiochemistry Hot Cell Labs, the Graphite Reactor and the Spallation Neutron Source, as well as the nearby Y-12 National Security Complex. They also traveled to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville to meet with faculty and students in their nuclear nonproliferation education program.

The students were accompanied by Dr. Sunil Chirayath, NSSPI director and associate professor of nuclear engineering, and Dr. Craig Marianno, NSSPI deputy director and assistant professor of nuclear engineering. Jessica White Horton at ORNL coordinated the training program, which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

Department of Nuclear Engineering hosts 2017 Ray Rothrock Lecture Series Panel

Fri, 17 Nov 2017 00:00:00 CST

Almost 200 students, faculty, staff and alumni filled a packed room in Texas A&M University’s Rudder Tower for the 2017 Ray Rothrock Lecture Series presented by the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M. The presentation, titled “The Future of Nuclear Energy: Challenges and Opportunities,” included a series of presentations by renowned individuals from national labs and the nuclear industry, as well as a question and answer panel.

The speakers included Mark Peters, director of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Kelly Beierschmitt, deputy laboratory director at INL, the Honorable Jeffrey Merrifield, former commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and Tim Powell, executive vice president and chief nuclear officer of the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company. The presentations also included a special video introduction from nuclear venture capitalist and CEO of RedSeal Inc., Ray Rothrock ’77.

The videos can be viewed via the following links:

Ray Rothrock Panel Introduction
Mark Peters Presentation
Kelly Beierschmitt Presentation
Jeffrey Merrifield Presentation
Tim Powell Presentation

The Ray Rothrock Lecture Series was established in spring 2016 with the intent of informing students and educators about different topics regarding innovation and change within the nuclear industry. Rothrock received a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering at Texas A&M before becoming a partner in the venture capital firm Venrock, a firm dedicated to creating and financing technological solutions. Rothrock’s advocacy of nuclear energy has stretched into involvement with the NRC, the U.S. Department of Energy and government legislators to help promote an environment in the nuclear industry that is conducive to the development of nuclear energy startups and power sources.

“Today with you is a distinguished panel, many of whom I know quite personally,” said Rothrock through his video introduction. “Thank you so much [to the panel] for making the trip down to College Station to bring the nuclear industry to the students there that are hungry to hear about it.”

Each speaker informed attendees regarding a different or related aspect of the nuclear industry, including the international expansion of nuclear energy, new reactor builds, emerging research needs, national nuclear policy and a variety of other subtopics. Students were also encouraged to ask questions regarding the nuclear industry during the question and answer session.

“In the future of nuclear energy, we have challenges, but with these challenges come opportunity,” said. Dr. Yassin Hassan, department head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M.

Engineering students and donors recognized at awards banquet

Thu, 02 Nov 2017 00:00:00 CST

Engineering students were honored and donors recognized at the Texas A&M University College of Engineering Student Awards banquet Oct. 26.

The Craig C. Brown Outstanding Senior Engineer Award is the most prestigious honor bestowed on a graduating senior in the College of Engineering. The award is based on outstanding scholastic achievement, leadership and character.

Established in 2012, the Outstanding Graduate Student Award recognizes one master’s student and one doctoral student who have demonstrated excellence above and beyond usual levels of achievement.

The Craig C. Brown Outstanding Senior Engineer Award winners

Willie D. Caraway

Huntsville, Alabama

Mechanical Engineering

Caraway has a strong love of learning and loves synergizing disparate knowledge to create new solutions. Being named a University Scholar provided him with the opportunity to regularly interact with other highly motivated individuals to sharpen their skills in analytical thinking and synthesizing knowledge. He also had the opportunity to perform research with Dr. Henry Everitt at the Army Material Research, Development and Engineering Center, and Dr. Patrick Shamberger in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M. Caraway also participated in the Zachry Leadership Program, which helped him improve his leadership skills and business knowledge. He is also involved in many student organizations, including the Jordan Institute, Pi Tau Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi and the American Society of Engineers.

Kendal Ezell

Tomball, Texas

Biomedical Engineering

With the passion to help people with neurological diseases, Ezell has shown great promise to accomplish the goals she has set for herself. Through her undergraduate research in biomedical engineering and neuropsychology, involvement in extracurricular activities and coursework, she has excelled, maintaining a 4.0 GPA while in the engineering honors program. Not only has she represented Texas A&M in the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program, but she has also received Phi Kappa Phi’s Outstanding Junior Award and the Peter Chaplinsky Memorial Scholarship. Most recently Ezell participated in the National Institute of Health’s 2017 National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Biomedical Engineering Summer Internship. Through her research she hopes to serve as an example to women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and encourage them to break barriers.

Kanika Gakhar

Katy, Texas

Aerospace Engineering

Gakhar’s passion for science and engineering have defined her outstanding academic career at Texas A&M. She regularly searches for opportunities in which she can build upon and strengthen her leadership and creativity. With these skills, she has helped design autonomous vehicles and build radio controlled aircrafts with heavy lifting capabilities. Gakhar aspires to create the next generation of bioinspired flying vehicles. She has presented conference papers at the 2017 American Helicopter Society Forum and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics student conference. In various leadership roles, she advocates for undergraduate research by helping her fellow Aggies find research opportunities that interest them. As a University Fellow, she has launched a workshop-based project aimed to empower the underprivileged and H.U.B., an initiative to reform entrepreneurship on the Texas A&M campus.

Jonah Haefner

Roswell, New Mexico

Nuclear Engineering

Haefner is a dedicated and passionate leader in all aspects of his life. He is a member of the Corps of Cadets, and has spent the past year serving as first sergeant where he oversaw the day-to-day operations of 50 other cadets. He actively engages with faculty members and has worked in a thermal hydraulics laboratory for the past two years. Through the O.R. Simpson Honor Society, he helped freshman engineering students succeed in their first semesters at Texas A&M through mentorship and tutoring to prepare them for continued success. Over the last two summers, he split his time between shadowing naval officers on active duty warships and working at Los Alamos National Laboratory on projects for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Carson Muscat

Seabrook, Texas

Petroleum Engineering

Muscat has a passion for engineering and a great enthusiasm for making a lasting impression on the local community and Texas A&M. He has revamped programs to help more than 3,500 engineering freshmen make informed decisions for their academic futures and aided in extending the reach to the Engineering Academies. He has served as an engineering student ambassador for three years and has talked to hundreds of prospective students about Texas A&M. Most recently, Muscat was the student leader for the Engineering Career Fair, the largest student-run fair in the nation. He has been awarded many academic honors, including the Dr. Dan Turner Engineering Leadership Award, the Academic Excellence Award, and being named a President’s Endowed Scholar and BP Student Scholar.

Dakota Plesa

Arlington, Texas

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Plesa is a first-generation college student who has made the most of his time at Texas A&M by not only focusing on academics, but also by forging lasting relationships with his fellow Aggies. He applied the skills he learned in the classroom to solving problems on campus, such as implementing a new organizational structure for the Memorial Student Center (MSC), and in international case competitions, such as at McGill University. Plesa was among the first non-business students to participate in the Mays Business Fellows Program, where he proved himself to be a highly effective member of his Fellows team and invested considerable time in developing relationships with his peers. He participated in the Jordan Institute, and served as vice president of programs and executive vice president of programs in the MSC.

Melissa Potts

Austin, Texas

Chemical Engineering

Potts attributes her success at Texas A&M to hard work. She balances membership in numerous activities and organizations with her studies. That dedication and persistence led her to success in Dr. Mark Holtzapple’s class— which at the time, she was the only freshman in the class. Through her determination and hard work, Potts was one of the few students who continued to work on a paper that would later be submitted to the Odebrecht Award for Sustainability. She continued working with Holtzapple the next year, spending about nine hours a week in the research lab on the MixAlco process, a technology that transforms waste biomass into fuels and industrial chemicals. Potts also shared her knowledge with her fellow Aggies, serving as a teaching assistant.

Kyle Wiggs

Weatherford, Texas

Mechanical Engineering

For Wiggs, engagement has been the key to his experience at Texas A&M. During his first year at Texas A&M, he was an active member in the Aggie Band, as well as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He has spent the last two years of his college career in leadership. As first sergeant of the 0.R. Simpson Honor Society, he created new events, such as “Dinner with your Major,” where cadets were instructed to eat dinner with other cadets within their major to encourage engagement between students of the same departments. Within ASME and his Corps unit, he has served as a mentor to other students, helping them find leadership opportunities and experiences.

2017 College of Engineering Outstanding Graduate Student Award

Joshua Harris

M.S. Candidate

Aerospace Engineering

Harris has proven himself to be an outstanding scholar and researcher. He is a master’s student in aerospace engineering, and works in the Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory at Texas A&M. His master’s research investigates a new theory and approach for intelligent control and integrated health management of complex systems, both manned and unmanned. Harris was awarded the 2017 Federal Aviation Administration PEGASAS General Aviation Center of Excellence Outstanding Student Researcher. He was also one of only 10 recipients of the National Defense Science Engineering Graduate Fellowships in 2014, in addition to the 2013 NASA Aeronautics Scholarship. Only 20 students nationally from all majors receive this NASA honor. Harris has authored or co-authored two conference papers and two journal papers.

Jonathan Gigax

Ph.D. Candidate

Nuclear Engineering

Gigax is a well-rounded scholar: intellectually curious, hardworking and supportive of his colleagues and fellow Aggies. Over the past five years, Gigax has published 26 journal papers, while maintaining a perfect 4.0 grade point average. He has made significant contributions in radiation materials science toward materials development for high-performance nuclear reactors. He established standard procedures in accelerator testing, which significantly influenced other labs. Due to his findings, other labs (including University of Michigan, University of Tennessee and University of Wisconsin in Madison) have changed their testing procedures to follow the Texas A&M method. Gigax has also made significant contributions in developing radiation tolerant materials having nanoscale features and inclusions, including nanograined materials, multilayered composite materials and nanoprecipitate alloys.

The College of Engineering also recognized the following newly endowed scholarships:

Angela and James Hambrick ’78 Endowed Scholarship in the College of Engineering

Carolyn and A. Damon Gowan ‘58 Endowed Scholarship

Dana and James R. Heinze ‘83 Scholarship Elsie and Vance Fairchild ’89 Endowed Scholarship

ExxonMobil Aggies Engineering Endowed Scholarship

Jimmie and Geoffrey Pope Endowed Scholarship

Jo and Mike Hunn ’59 Scholarship

Marilyn ’99 and Stewart ’99 Robinson Scholarship

Michelle ’88 and Todd Steudtner ’87 Scholarship

Richard W. Burr ’62 and Charity B. Burr Scholarship

Shah Smith & Associates Scholarship

Sue Nobles and Elmer Eldridge Goins Engineering Scholarship

Terri and Keith Hawkins ’79 Scholarship

Nuclear engineering student Haefner recipient of Craig Brown Outstanding Senior Engineer Award

Tue, 24 Oct 2017 00:00:00 CST

For most students, surviving the academic struggle that is engineering at Texas A&M University is enough of a challenge, but senior nuclear engineering student Jonah Haefner has never stopped challenging himself. A high-performing student and student leader, Haefner’s achievements have culminated into his receiving the Craig Brown Outstanding Senior Engineer Award.

“It's a great honor for me to receive this award and I feel so fortunate because of what it says about my involvement and academic success,” Haefner said.

Eligible students for the award are required to be engineering students of good standing and maintain an overall grade point ratio of 3.5. Winners are selected by Engineering Academic and Student Affairs after a nomination is confirmed by the student’s engineering department, where they are then evaluated on scholastic achievement, leadership and character. The award also comes with a $5,000 scholarship. In addition to maintaining his academic standing, Haefner is also involved in several on-campus organizations.

“For me, my involvement is about helping other people,” Haefner said. “In the Corps, I dedicate a lot of time to ensure my underclassmen are successful and have the tools they need to succeed because I want them to find that fulfillment in their own lives.”

In addition to his role as the executive officer of Company G-2 in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M, Haefner is also the executive officer of the O.R. Simpson Honor Society, a special society within the Corps of Cadets that is dedicated the academic mentorship and success of other cadets, and is involved in the Corps of Cadets athletic teams, participating in the marathon and triathlon teams.

Haefner also works as an undergraduate researcher at the Department of Nuclear Engineering thermal hydraulics laboratory and is doing an undergraduate research thesis with the Engineering Honors program.

“Previously I've done some heat transfer and fluid flow correlations for cross flow heat exchangers for a molten salt reactor,” Haefner said. “But now I am working on a project setting nozzle flow for a Terry turbine in a RCIC [Reactor Core Isolation Cooling] system.”

Haefner, who is contracted with the U.S. Navy, will be commissioning as an officer upon graduation, with the hope of working as a naval reactor engineer in Washington D.C. and then one day coming back to Texas A&M to pursue a doctoral degree and conduct research.

“I think that this award is about more than being academically successful or being really involved on campus,” said Haefner. “I’ve just done my best to help others succeed and I take pride in doing that for others.”

NSSPI Leads Nuclear Facilities Experience in Japan

Wed, 20 Sep 2017 00:00:00 CST

In August, the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute (NSSPI) led a Nuclear Facilities Experience (NFE) in Japan for graduate students and staff from eight U.S. universities and five national laboratories. This event was coordinated with several institutions in Japan, including the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, the Integrated Support Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security, Tokyo Electric Power Company and Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited. Support for the NFE was provided by the Next-Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI) of the Office of Nonproliferation and Arms Control in the Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Program Office of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The graduate students were selected based on their specializations in nuclear nonproliferation-related topic areas. Four students from Texas A&M University were joined by graduate students from Clemson University, Oregon State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Georgia and UC Berkeley. Six national laboratory employees were selected by NGSI sponsors and included early-career research staff members from the Y-12 National Security Complex, Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The group was accompanied by faculty members Dr. Craig Marianno, deputy director of NSSPI and an assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M, and Dr. Marek Flaska from Pennsylvania State University.

The NFE began in Hiroshima, where participants toured the Hiroshima Peace Park and the Peace Memorial Museum. Participants were also given a first-hand perspective on the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima from survivor Ms. Keiko Ogura, who gave an account of her experiences and observations of August 6, 1945.

The NFE then took participants to the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where they interacted with students and staff from NSSPI's peer institute, the Academy of Global Nuclear Safety and Security, which is run by professor Masaki Saito. Marianno, Flaska, and Saito all gave presentations on the nuclear security and safeguards educational programs at their respective universities, and two students presented their research to the group.

For the remainder of the visit, participants toured various institutions and facilities throughout Japan such as the Plutonium Fuel Development Facility, the Tokai Reprocessing Center and the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant. The group spoke with researchers, technicians and managers with experience in nuclear material accountability and control and facility/process operations. They were also able to view areas in facilities with active safeguards infrastructure in place. Through these interactions, the students and professionals gained knowledge on safeguards practices and the interaction between operators and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors.

The participants were also given the opportunity to visit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station site. According to Marianno, "This was a unique experience, and all the participants thought it was one of the highlights of the trip." At Fukushima, representatives from the Tokyo Electric Power Company briefed the group on the status of the cleanup efforts at the site and gave them an extensive tour of the protected area.

Experiences like the NFE allow graduate students and early career professionals in nuclear safeguards and security to see first-hand how safeguards are implemented at various types of facilities and to network with their peers. This is the second NFE conducted by NSSPI this year, the first being a visit to facilities in the U.K. in May, and the third facilities tour led by NSSPI to take place in Japan.

Texas A&M researchers develop nuclear material detection and nuclear forensics methodologies to combat threats of nuclear proliferation and terrorism

Mon, 18 Sep 2017 00:00:00 CST

International fears of nuclear war were once concerns of the Cold War era, but geopolitical and international developments within the last century have placed countries like North Korea and Iran at the forefront of nuclear tensions and capabilities. As concerns of proliferation, the spread of nuclear weapons development, grows among hostile foreign powers, researchers at Texas A&M University are improving technologies that help monitor nuclear materials across the globe.

“Geopolitical tensions and issues will likely always continue to be in flux,” said Dr. Sunil Chirayath, associate professor of nuclear engineering and the director of the Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute (NSSPI). “What’s important is that we continue the work we’ve been doing at Texas A&M to combat these threats.”

Texas A&M has a strong legacy of working in nuclear nonproliferation and forensics as the first university to create an education and research program combining the technical and policy aspects of nuclear security through the Department of Nuclear Engineering in 2003. With the establishment of NSSPI in 2006, Texas A&M has served as a watershed for the development of multidisciplinary solutions to nuclear security challenges and policy issues, two of which include the Self-Interrogation Neutron Resonance Densitometry (SINRD) detector and the further development of nuclear forensics methodologies for tracking black market nuclear materials to its source.

“These projects we have worked on and developed are part of the cutting edge of nuclear security and safeguards projects,” Chirayath said. “They will give organizations like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) better tools for verification and accountability.

NSSPI collaborated with Los Alamos National Lab to develop a SINRD detector, which improves existing nuclear material accountancy measures for light water reactors. The SINRD detector provides numerous improvements over current IAEA verification tools.

Advances in nuclear forensics by NSSPI, with sponsorship from Department of Homeland Security, generated a specialized methodology to track nuclear materials to their source. Investigators would then be able to use this methodology, by analyzing plutonium isotopes, to keep weapons-grade plutonium out of the hands of terrorists or hostile powers. This new methodology is envisaged to support the deterrence aspect of nuclear security.

Such methods help agencies like the IAEA police the proliferation of nuclear materials. In 1970, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons came into effect with 190 countries, ensuring that countries that work with nuclear materials are able to account for, safeguard and monitor uranium enrichment facilities and plutonium processing facilities to ensure weapons-grade nuclear material isn’t diverted for military purposes.

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Nuclear weapons-grade material is a material that can sustain a rapidly growing chain reaction in which fast neutrons cause atoms to split, releasing more fast neutrons over and over again until it leads to an uncontrolled nuclear fission chain reaction. This uncontrolled chain reaction generates a nuclear explosion. Weapons-grade plutonium and uranium are not naturally present in the environment, but can be produced in suitably designed facilities.
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As more advances are made in nuclear safeguards and security efforts, Texas A&M looks forward to leading the way in practical solutions to the nuclear security challenges to address nuclear threats worldwide.

“It’s a great feeling to be a part of these international efforts to help increase worldwide security against the threats,” said Dr. Craig Marianno, assistant professor of nuclear engineering and the deputy director of NSSPI. “The work we and our partners are doing is directly impacting the world community by preventing and protecting against these nuclear security scenarios.”

Texas A&M nuclear research team solves generic safety issue - 191 in collaboration with South Texas Project plant

Tue, 22 Aug 2017 00:00:00 CST

A research team with the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University, in collaboration with the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company (STPNOC), has solved Generic Safety Issue (GSI) - 191, a problem resulting from a loss of coolant accident in a nuclear reactor, which can cause debris to be generated and potentially impact the performance of the safety system.

The team provided a solution to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for GSI-191 regarding the generation of debris during a loss of coolant accident and the potential consequences to the emergency system performance. The methodology that the team has developed will allow this safety issue to be addressed in light water reactors (LWR) across the country and is the first to be approved by the NRC.

The loss of coolant accident is a design basis accident, meaning that when a reactor design is licensed, it has to be designed to handle these type of accidents safely under any circumstance. GSI-191 is a safety issue that results during a loss of coolant accident where debris can be generated and potentially impact the performance of the safety system pumping water through the primary system in an attempt to cool the reactor to safe levels. The debris blocking sump strainers and other flow paths can cause insufficient amounts of water to be recycled through the system, which means the reactor isn’t being cooled efficiently or safely.

To solve this problem, STPNOC partnered with Texas A&M to develop a widely applicable methodology, approved by the NRC, that can be applied to theoretically any operating LWR plant across the country. The methodology provides guidance on evaluating the safety level of the plant against the GSI-191, accounting for similarities and variable differences between plants.

“Our contribution became very important as we had to make sure the calculations we were doing were in compliance with NRC guidelines and expectations for thermal hydraulic calculations regarding licensing,” said Rodolfo Vaghetto, co-principal investigator with the project and a research assistant professor at Texas A&M.

Texas A&M’s collaboration with STPNOC on this project began in 2010, where through seven years of partnership and continuous interactions between five divisions and 14 branches of the NRC staff, the methodology was developed. In developing this methodology, two risk-informed approaches were used, the full risk-informed approach and the risk over deterministic method.

The department’s main attribution to this project is through the thermal hydraulics calculations and experimental studies performed. Texas A&M is the first to perform these types of complex analyses, with over 100 different scenarios simulated.

“The methodology is generic, so any power plants can adopt it while accounting for plant-specific parameters, Vaghetto said.”

Through the approval process of the licensing amendment, more than 50 public meetings and 400 requests of additional information were completed, in addition to 13 project audits, before the license amendment was issued in July 2017.

“We’ve made great progress in the nuclear power plant safety methodology and we look forward to other nuclear plants adopting the STPNOC methodology to resolve the GSI-191 issue,” Vaghetto said.

Students involved in the project felt that it gave them invaluable experience.

“The opportunity to work on GSI-191 let me solve a real industry problem,” said Tim Crook, a nuclear engineer at Transatomic Power and former student researcher with the project. “This breadth of exposure was invaluable towards my education experience and career choices. I’m proud to know that I made an impact on closing a 20-plus-year-old issue and simultaneously proved the robust safety case of nuclear power plants.”

The Texas A&M effort in this project involved the following researchers; Rodolfo Vaghetto, Alessandro Vanni, Yassin Hassan, Shin Kang, Angelo Frisani, Brad Beeny and Timothy Crook, in addition to more than 15 undergraduate students.

Engineering student works on nuclear weapon safety and machine learning optimization projects

Tue, 01 Aug 2017 00:00:00 CST

Most college students view an ideal summer as one spent on a sunbaked beach, but Texas A&M University nuclear engineering student Zachary Hardy is under a different kind of heat in New Mexico, working alongside a research team at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to try to validate a computational model for electrostatic discharge.

Hardy and his colleagues are designing and conducting a specialized experiment to attempt to validate this model developed by the Colorado School of Mines, which could have an impact on the electrostatic discharge safety procedures currently governing nuclear weapons handling. Validation of this model would remove some of the overly conservative assumptions currently used to characterize electrostatic discharge events.

“Sometimes enough charge can build up on a surface to ionize the air around it. When this happens, the air begins to conduct electricity and a spark occurs. This is the same thing that occurs when you walk on carpet and then touch something and get shocked,” Hardy said.“The primary concern for electrostatic discharge with regard to weapons is that the handling and maintenance processes could lead to a shock, potentially causing damage.”

According to Hardy, the safeguards in place likely give overestimates of the amount of energy that will be transferred from the surface where a charge is built up to the where the spark strikes. Through these experiments, Hardy and the other researchers hope that some of the costly procedures in place to prevent a spark can be eliminated while still guaranteeing safety.

“Assuming our physical results and the model’s calculated results agree, this model could be adopted for use and could soon have an impact on the weapons complex because these events could be more accurately characterized,” Hardy said.

This project has been ongoing for about two years at LANL, where Hardy worked last summer on a different project. Hardy came onto the project this summer and has been working with researchers at a variety of different levels. As an undergraduate student involved in high-end research, he says the experience has been surreal.

“Walking into LANL this summer I did not know what project I would be working on,” Hardy said. “Then I hear I am doing experimental work regarding electrostatic discharge, something I have never studied before and did not know much about. I did not think I would be involved in work this relevant or far away from my field of study this soon in my career, but I feel honored for receiving this opportunity.”

Because of Hardy’s extensive research activities at LANL and Texas A&M, he received the Nuclear Energy University Program Scholarship funded by the Department of Energy, and the John R. Lamarsh Memorial Scholarship funded by American Nuclear Society, based on a strong potential for continuing research in the field of nuclear engineering.

At Texas A&M Hardy has been conducting research under Dr. Pavel Tsvetkov, who is developing machine learning optimization techniques for a variety of applications. Hardy and Tsvetkov have applied genetic algorithms that mimic the biological process of natural selection to solve complex optimization problems in the nuclear engineering field. Thus far, the algorithm has been used to solve quantum mechanics problems and to aid in optimizing the supply chain strategy, in conjunction with Fluor and NuScale, for small modular reactors. This upcoming year they plan to use this algorithm to develop a nondestructive material characterization technique.

“In the quantum mechanics application, we based it on a genetic algorithm found in a textbook and steered it from there,” Hardy said. “We’ve been fine tuning to figure out how to construct this algorithm so that it can be applied to any suitable problem with minimal effort. There are potentially countless applications for this.”