2017 Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Award Winners

The U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, Office of Nuclear Technology R&D, congratulates the following winners of the 2017 Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Awards.

Winners of the Open Competition
Advanced Fuels
First Place Drew Johnson University of Michigan Quantitative Analysis of Localized Stresses in Irradiated Stainless Steels using High Resolution Electron Backscatter Diffraction and Molecular Dynamics Modeling	Second Place Troy Eckleberry University of Tennessee Reactivity Assessment of Enhanced Accident Tolerant Claddings in a Modern PWR

Advanced Reactor Systems
First Place David Frazer University of California at Berkeley Degradation of HT9 under Simultaneous Ion Beam Irradiation and Liquid Metal Corrosion	Second Place Benjamin Magolan Massachusetts Institute of Technology Multiphase Turbulence Mechanisms Identification from Consistent Analysis of Direct Numerical Simulation Data

Material Protection, Control, and Accountancy
First Place Cody Dennett Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bridging the Gap to Mesoscale Radiation Materials Science with Transient Grating Spectroscopy
Second Place (tie) Adam Olsen University of Utah Quantifying Morphological Features of α-U₃O₈ with Image Analysis for Nuclear Forensics	Second Place (tie) Adam Weltz Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Development of a Modular Directional and Spectral Neutron Detection System Using Solid-state Detectors

Material Recovery and Waste Form Development
First Place Mitchell Friend Washington State University Hafnium(IV) Complexation with Oxalate at Variable Temperatures	Second Place Kevin McCann Colorado School of Mines Hexavalent Americium Recovery Using Copper(III) Periodate

Nuclear Science and Engineering
First Place Jason Richards University of Nevada at Las Vegas Selective Partitioning of Ruthenium from Nitric Acid Media	Second Place Anna Baldwin Colorado School of Mines Tributyl Phosphate Aggregation in the Presence of Metals: An Assessment Using Diffusion NMR Spectroscopy

Used Fuel Disposition
First Place Dawn Montgomery Clemson University The Influence of Citrate and Oxalate on ⁹⁹Tc^VII, Cs, Np^V and U^VI Sorption to a Savannah River Site Soil	Second Place Alexander Creely Massachusetts Institute of Technology Validation of Nonlinear Gyrokinetic Simulations of L- and I-Mode Plasmas on Alcator C-Mod

Winners of the Competition for Students Attending Universities with Less than $600 Million in 2015 Science and Engineering R&D Expenditures
Adam Burak University of Utah Measurement of Solubility of Metallic Lithium Dissolved in Molten LiCl-Li₂O	Justin Felder University of South Carolina Application of a Mild Hydrothermal Method to the Synthesis of Mixed Transition-metal(II)/Uranium(IV) Fluorides

Alexander Hagen Purdue University Detection of Special Nuclear Material in Cargo using Continuous Neutron Interrogation and Tension Metastable Fluid Detectors	Patrick Skrodzki Purdue University Significance of Ambient Conditions in Uranium Absorption and Emission Features of Laser Ablation Plasmas

Caleb Tatebe Purdue University [2π+2π] Cycloaddition of Isocyanates to Uranium(IV) Imido Complexes for the Synthesis of U(IV) κ²-Ureato Compounds

Winners of the Undergraduate Competition
Sarah Abraham University of Michigan An Efficient, Affordable Optically Stimulated Luminescent (OSL) Annealer	Kyle Beyer University of Michigan Pulse Shape Discrimination Characterization of Stilbene Detectors with Light Guide Coupling and Silicon Photomultiplier Readout

Andrew Boria University of Michigan ¹³⁷Cs Dosimeter Irradiation Facilities: Calibration Frequency, Precision, and Accuracy	Michael Hua University of Michigan Analytic Error Quantification for Generalized Fast-Neutron Multiplicity Counting Equations

Michael Martin University of California at Berkeley Feasibility of a Breed-and-Burn Molten Salt Reactor

2017 Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Award Winners

Winners of the Open Competition

Winners of the Competition for Students Attending Universities with Less than $600 Million in 2015 Science and Engineering R&D Expenditures

Winners of the Undergraduate Competition