2020 Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Award Winners

The U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, Office of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Supply Chain, congratulates the following winners of the 2020 Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Awards.

Winners of the Open Competition
Advanced Fuels
First Place Rigel Hanbury University of Michigan Oxide Growth and Dissolution on 316L Stainless Steel During Irradiation in High Temperature Water	Second Place Jacob Gorton University of Tennessee at Knoxville Reactor Performance and Safety Characteristics of ThN-UN Fuel Concepts in a PWR

Advanced Reactor Systems
First Place Samuel McAlpine Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corrosion of Commercial Alloys in FLiNaK Molten Salt Containing EuF₃ and Simulant Fission Product Additives	Second Place Garland Porter Texas A&M University Surface Pressure Measurements in a Model Helical Coil Steam Generator Using Pressure Sensitive Paint

Energy Policy
First Place Paul Stockett Purdue University Nonproliferation in the New Space Age: Where Do We Stand?	Second Place Lee Maccarone University of Pittsburgh Toward a Game-Theoretic Metric for Nuclear Power Plant Security

Material Protection, Control, and Accountancy
First Place Daniel Rutstrom University of Tennesse at Knoxville Europium Concentration Effects on Scintillation Properties of Cs₄SrI₆:Eu and Cs₄CaI₆:Eu Single Crystals for Use in Gamma Spectroscopy	Second Place William Steinberger University of Pittsburgh Imaging Special Nuclear Material Using a Handheld Dual Particle Imager

Material Recovery and Waste Form Development
First Place James Louis-Jean University of Nevada at Las Vegas Preparation and Characterization of Benzotriazolium Perrhenate	Second Place Julia Knapp Northwestern University Single Crystal Structure and Photocatalytic Behavior of Grafted Uranyl on the Zr-Node of a Pyrene-Based Metal-organic Framework

Nuclear Science and Engineering
First Place Selena Staun University of California at Santa Barbara Use of ¹⁵N NMR Spectroscopy to Probe Covalency in a Thorium Nitride	Second Place Nina Colby Fleming North Carolina State University Structure-Dependent Doppler Broadening Using a Generalized Thermal Scattering Law

Used Fuel Disposition
First Place Sydney Holdampf Colorado School of Mines Electrophoretic Separations of Lanthanum and Gadolinium for Used Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing	Second Place Samuel Karcher Washington State University Oxidation and Anion Lattice Defect Signatures of Hypostoichiometric Lanthanide-doped UO₂

Winners of the Competition for Students Attending Universities with Less than $600 Million in 2018 Science and Engineering R&D Expenditures
Alexa Hanson University of Utah Quantifying Impurity Effects on the Surface Morphology of α-U₃O₈	Richard Hernandez University of Tennesse at Knoxville Review of Pool Boiling Critical Heat Flux (CHF) and Heater Rod Design for CHF Experiments in TREAT

Mikaela Pyrch University of Iowa Exploring Crown-Ether Functionalization on the Stabilization of Hexavalent Neptunium	Ember Sikorski Boise State University First-principles Comparative Study of UN and Zr Corrosion

Alexander Wheeler University of Tennessee at Knoxville Plutonium Diversion Effect on Molten-Salt Reactor Dynamics

Winners of the Undergraduate Competition
Kaylee Cunningham University of Florida Modeling the IFR-1 Metal Fuel Experiment in Bison through the NEAMS Workbench	Coral Kazaroff Georgia Institute of Technology Economic Benefits of Higher Enriched Assays for 24-Month Cycle Length

Jordan Noey University of Michigan The Effects of Radiation and Emitted Light Transport on the Positional Response of 11 cm x 42.5 cm x 5.5 cm NaI(Tl) Detectors	Kaelee Novich Boise State University Synthesis of Boron Carbide Reinforced Aluminum Alloys through Mechanical Stir Casting

Jack Thiesen University of Michigan Preliminary Demonstration of a Method of Radiation Dosimetry using Passive, Integrating LiF:Mg,Ti Thermoluminescent Dosimeters

2020 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 2018 Science and Engineering R&D Expenditures

Winners of the Undergraduate Competition