News & Media
Professor Bilge Yildiz appointed to the Rasmussen Chair in Nuclear Science and Engineering
Assistant Professor Bilge Yildiz has been named Norman C. Rasmussen Assistant Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering. The two-year Rasmussen professorship is a career development chair, designed to give younger faculty members an opportunity to establish their research activities and lay the foundation for future advances in their field. Professor Yildiz’s research focuses on understanding the fundamental relations between surface structure, microchemistry, electronic structure and activity in electrochemically-active material interfaces. By elucidating the mechanisms governing interface reactivity at the atomistic level, Professor Yildiz and her colleagues hope to be able to tailor these interfaces to the benefit of particular technologies of interest, including both future generations of fuel cells and corrosion-resistant alloys in nuclear reactors. The Rasmussen Professorship was endowed by Institute alum Neil Rasmussen in honor of his late father, Norman C. Rasmussen, a pioneering and widely-admired NSE professor who served as department head from 1975 to 1981. Professor Rasmussen was lead author of WASH-1400, the influential 1975 report for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission which marked the first application of probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) to nuclear plant safety. |
Three NSE students awarded DOE-funded Science Graduate Fellowships
Current NSE graduate student Christian Haakonsen and incoming students Mark Chilenski and John Hanson are among 15 MIT students awarded Science Graduate Fellowships by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The fellowship is part of a new initiative to encourage outstanding students to choose careers in science and to support basic research by young scientists in a variety of fields including biology, chemistry, physics, computational science, engineering, environmental sciences, and mathematics. Christian Haakonsen’s interests range from plasma physics and fusion energy to neutron stars. He is currently engaged in research that explores using particle-in-cell codes to study ion-collecting probes/objects in flowing magnetized plasmas. Mark Chilenski’s graduate research will focus on the Levitated Dipole Experiment (LDX), a unique plasma confinement device that uses an inductively charged, magnetically levitated superconducting magnet in the middle of the plasma to provide a poloidal magnetic dipole field. John Hanson’s research interests lie in energy policy and solutions to the nation’s energy challenges. He will focus on the advancement of nuclear power as an integral part of the future energy solution. Mark Chilenski and John Hanson will join the Department in Fall 2010. This is the first year of DOE’s Science Graduate Fellowship Program, which will support 150 students nationwide. “The exceptionally talented students selected as graduate fellows are part of our nation's next generation of scientific and technical leaders,” said DOE Secretary Chu. “This investment in the training of scientists and engineers is part of the Administration's continued effort to ensure that America has the scientific and engineering workforce we need to secure our energy future and our continued economic competitiveness.” Each fellow will be provided $50,500 per year for up to three years to support tuition, living expenses, research materials and travel to research conferences or to Department of Energy scientific user facilities. L to R: DOE Science Fellows, Christian Haakonsen, Mark Chilenski and John Hanson. |
Three NSE graduate students win DOE-sponsored awards
Graduate students Mark Massie, Robert Petroski, and Jeremy Roberts, of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, have been named winners of the 2010 Innovations in Fuel Cycle Research Awards sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE). This new award program is designed to facilitate innovation, the creation of new ideas, and education in fuel-cycle-relevant disciplines. Students were judged on published or submitted papers in any of the following eight categories: Nuclear Science and Engineering, Fuel Separations and Waste Forms, Advanced Materials, Nuclear Fuels, Isotope Transmutation, Nuclear Material Accountability and Control Instrumentation, Systems Engineering and Analysis, and Energy Policy (with a focus on Nuclear Energy). Robert Petroski and Mark Massie placed first and second respectively in the Isotope Transmutation category; Jeremy Roberts placed second in the Nuclear Science and Engineering category. All three will receive cash prizes and will present their work at the 2010 ANS Winter Meeting. L to R: Award winners, Mark Massie, Robert Petroski, and Jeremy Roberts. |
NSE Prof. Ronald Ballinger appointed to the MWRA Independent Review PanelOn June 29, 2010, the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) appointed a three-member independent panel of experts that will examine the circumstances that led to the loss of the insulating coupling along a section of the MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel. This failure resulted in a boil water order for 30 Eastern Massachusetts communities. The expert panel is chaired by President Zorica Pantic, President of Wentworth Institute of Technology. It includes Ronald Ballinger, Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at MIT and Director of the H. H. Uhlig Corrosion Laboratory; and John H. Bambei, Jr. Chief of Engineering for Denver Water and Chairman of the American Waterworks Associations' Committee on Steel Pipe. This independent review panel will prepare a report of its findings and recommendations about the design, construction and other defects or deficiencies that may have contributed to the failure of the affected section of the tunnel. It will include any evidence that may allow MWRA to pursue cost recovery efforts, and will also make general recommendations about the design, installation and testing of past and future pipe coupling systems. |
Former nuclear engineering head Mason dies at 85
Mason joined the faculty of the Nuclear Engineering Department at its formation in 1957, having previously served as an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering. He served as department head from 1971 to 1975. He was a U.S. Navy veteran, and received his master's and doctorate degrees in chemical engineering from MIT after serving in World War II. In 1974 President Gerald Ford appointed Mason as a commissioner on the first Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He began his government service in January 1975, when the Commission was formally established. He subsequently served as Vice President for Research at Amoco Corporation. Mason was a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the New York Academy of Sciences; fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Nuclear Society, and the American Institute of Chemists; and member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Chemical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Richard K. Lester, the current head of the Nuclear Science and Engineering department, noted the influential role played by Mason in the early years of the department. “Ed was an outstanding figure in the development of the nuclear engineering discipline. Together with Manson Benedict and their students he shaped the field of nuclear chemical engineering. And even after leaving the Department Ed continued over many years to provide valuable advice and counsel to us. He will be greatly missed.” |
MIT partners in DOE-funded Nuclear Energy Innovation HubMIT is one of nine partners in a new Nuclear Energy Innovation Hub announced by U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman on May 28. The Hub, also known as the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL), will be led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and in addition to MIT includes partners from universities, industry and other national labs. It will use advanced capabilities of the world's most powerful computers to make significant leaps forward in nuclear reactor design and engineering. A major focus of the MIT researchers will be to model the behavior of key materials such as fuel and fuel cladding together with energy generation and transport processes so as to provide better estimates of how these materials will perform within the extreme environment of a nuclear reactor. The Nuclear Energy Innovation Hub will receive up to $122 million over five years and is the first of three Hubs expected to be announced by the Department of Energy this year. The MIT team is led by three Nuclear Science and Engineering professors: the PI, Professor Mujid Kazimi, Director of the Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Studies, and the co-PIs, Professors Sidney Yip and Jacopo Buongiorno. The Oak Ridge-based Innovation Hub will be guided by a Board of Directors headed by Professor Ernest Moniz of the MIT Energy Initiative on which Prof. Kazimi will also serve. The MIT team brings together faculty and research staff from Nuclear Science and Engineering (Profs. Benoit Forget and Bilge Yildiz and Dr. Aydin Karahan, as well as Profs. Kazimi, Yip, and Buongiorno), Materials Science and Engineering (Profs. Michael Demkowicz and Jeff Grossman), and Civil and Environmental Engineering (Prof. John Williams). |
Bill Gates: I love nuclearDuring his recent visit to MIT, Bill Gates asked an audience of students and faculty a basic question: “Are the brightest minds working on the most important problems?” While his talk focused on health care in the developing world and the U.S. education system, in the question session that followed the discussion shifted to the future of energy. Matthew R. Denman, a graduate student in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, asked Gates about the future of nuclear power, referring to TerraPower, a company with a design for a new kind of reactor using depleted uranium in which Gates is a lead investor. Gates firmly declared himself to be pro-nuclear—“the coolest of all”. He contrasted nuclear technology with what he called “cuddly” technologies like wind and solar, which require large amounts of land and generate energy only intermittently. “I love nuclear ...” he said, and called for more innovation in nuclear power plants. One of the biggest challenges facing the nuclear engineers at TerraPower and throughout the nuclear power industry is to develop materials, including fuels, that are capable of performing efficiently and reliably in high radiation fields over long periods. At NSE several faculty are working on materials-related problems in radiation environments, in some cases in collaboration with colleagues in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. In NSE Sidney Yip, Bilge Yildiz, Ron Ballinger, Mujid Kazimi, Jacopo Buongiorno, Dennis Whyte In DMSE Linn Hobbs, Michael Demkowicz |
Prof. George Apostolakis sworn in as Commissioner of NRC The addition of Apostolakis, a professor of nuclear science, brings the agency to its full complement of five commissioners for the first time since 2007. He joins the other Commissioners Kristine L. Svinicki, William D. Magwood and William C. Ostendorff. Both Magwood and Ostendorff were sworn in April 1. “I’m looking forward to the Commissioner joining our discussions about important policy issues facing the agency and the nation,” said Jaczko. “He brings an exceptional background and talent to the NRC. His insights and experience will strengthen our decision-making and help us to continue to meet our critical mission to protect public health, safety and the environment.” “Nuclear safety has been at the center of my career and I look forward to working with my fellow commissioners to shape policy on the important regulatory issues facing the agency,” said Apostolakis, who is a former member and chairman of the statutory Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards at the NRC. Before joining the NRC, Apostolakis was the Korea Electric Power Corporation professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering and a professor of Engineering Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the founder of the International Conferences on Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management and received the Tommy Thompson Award for his contributions to improvement of reactor safety in 1999 and the Arthur Holly Compton Award in Education in 2005 from the American Nuclear Society. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2007. The NRC commissioners have five-year terms, each staggered one year apart. Apostolakis was confirmed to a term that ends June 30, 2014. |
NSE Alum Roderic I. Pettigrew, Ph.D. ‘77, elected to the National Academy of EngineeringRoderic I. Pettigrew, Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Pettigrew was recognized for “the use of MRI in human blood-flow studies and leading advancements in bioengineering research and education as the initial director of NIBIB.” |
John Rowe delivers opening keynote at MIT Energy Conference
John W. Rowe, CEO of Exelon Corporation, delivered the opening keynote address at the MIT Energy Conference this Saturday, March 6th. Exelon is the largest nuclear operator in the U.S., and has announced an ambitious goal to reduce, offset, or displace 15 million tons of its greenhouse gas emissions (more than its carbon footprint in 2001) by 2020. Rowe’s address focused on the need for a carbon pricing mechanism, through either a carbon tax or a cap and trade system with an escalating maximum cost of carbon. He stressed that the current system of portfolio standards and other incentives can contribute by encouraging new technologies and re-starting old ones, but that this can be neither efficient nor effective in reducing emissions without the involvement of the market. Rowe also commented that new nuclear plants cannot be sited or built without a strong public consensus, and that no federal regulation can change that. When asked about bringing innovation to the nuclear industry, Rowe highlighted a conundrum faced by the nuclear industry in its drive for revival, namely that innovation and standardization “don’t naturally come together. They’re awkward bedfellows.” Nonetheless, Rowe confirmed: “I firmly believe that a cleaner 2050 requires a whole lot of new nuclear.” |
Prof. Richard Lester discusses nuclear technology on NPR's Science Friday
Friday, March 5th, 2010 From small-scale nuclear power plants to advanced reactor designs, what's next for the technology of nuclear power? We'll talk about some of the technology changes involved in proposed new reactor designs under consideration by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. We'll also look at the idea of small-scale nuclear -- building a power plant to support a community, rather than an entire state. Will downsizing make the nuclear any more appealing? |
Nuclear engineer Thomas Pigford, former MIT professor, dies at age 87Helped lay the foundation for MIT’s graduate program in nuclear engineering Former MIT Professor Thomas Harrington Pigford SM ’48, ScD ‘52, who helped launch the Institute’s graduate program in nuclear engineering, died Sunday, Feb. 28, at his home in Oakland, Calif., from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 87. |
New technique offers a more detailed view of brain activity
However, although fMRI is a powerful tool for identifying brain regions that are active during a particular task, it offers only an indirect view of what’s happening. Measuring a more direct indicator of neural activity, such as concentrations of neurotransmitters (brain chemicals that carry messages between neurons) could be much more valuable. Now, for the first time, MIT and Caltech researchers have come up with a new type of fMRI sensor that can do just that. The two sensors, described in the Feb. 28 online edition of Nature Biotechnology, detect dopamine — a neurotransmitter involved in learning, movement control and many other brain processes. “This new tool connects molecular phenomena in the nervous system with whole-brain imaging techniques, allowing us to probe very precise processes and relate them to the overall function of the brain and of the organism,” says Alan Jasanoff, an associate professor of biological engineering at MIT and senior author of the paper. >> Read full article & watch video Image: A model of the protein Jasanoff's team engineered into a dopamine sensor for MRI |
Recent NSE graduate Lara Pierpoint working on energy policy.The MIT Washington Office likes to connect MIT affiliates who have deep backgrounds in policy-relevant research topics with Washington officials who might benefit from hearing expert opinions. The details of these students’ and professors’ experiences vary widely, but they share a common theme of working to bolster support for and understand science in the federal government. Lara M. Pierpoint, a PhD student in the Engineering Systems Division, said she “fell in love with the policy world,” as an undergraduate while interning at the National Academy of Sciences. Enrolling in the Technology and Policy Program and Department of Nuclear Engineering at MIT for her Master’s felt natural. She has interacted with policy makers in D.C. in a variety of contexts, including trips with the Technology and Policy program and the MIT Energy Club, which she led as president in the 2008-2009 academic year, and on her own, as an intern at the Department of Energy in the summer of 2006. Pierpoint called the Washington Office an “invaluable resource” during many of her trips to D.C. in part because the staff are “very steeped in whatever is going on [in Washington] at the time.” >> Read full article |
NSE Professor Ron Ballinger and DMSE Professor Ned Thomas lead a team of NSE and DMSE faculty in a collaboration with BP to investigate materials and corrosion science and technology.BP today announced the launch of a major research collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Manchester. BP and the universities will work together on materials and corrosion research, as it applies to oilfield applications. In addition to Prof. Ballinger, other participating NSE faculty include Professors Bilge Yildiz and Sidney Yip. DMSE Professors Michael Demkowicz and Chris Schuh will also play a role. For MIT, Professor Ron Ballinger noted that "The MIT/BP collaboration is an exciting opportunity to develop a fundamental understanding of the underlying mechanisms of environmental degradation and the application of this understanding to the development of advanced materials for use in extreme environments such as those found in the oil and gas industry." Professor Ned Thomas added, "Advanced energy production systems are increasingly materials limited so it is critical that our graduates are well versed in the role of extreme environments on materials behaviour and, in particular, the role of corrosion in real engineering systems." As part of this long-term relationship, BP will also fund curriculum development at the two universities in order to help build a higher profile for oilfield materials and corrosion science in undergraduate and graduate education. >> Read full article |
NSE graduate student Saaransh Gulati hopes to power up nuclear energy for the US and developing nations.
Gulati is one of 47 MIT Energy Fellows supported by MITEI’s member companies in 2009-2010. Sponsored by MITEI associate member EDF, Gulati is working with Jacopo Buongiorno, associate professor of nuclear science and engineering, to develop a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to predict and improve conditions within nuclear reactors. >> Read full article
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NSE graduate students peer inside an artificial sun
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Graduate student’s business storms the cinema lighting industry
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The High Costs of CopenhagenWhat President Obama's pledge to reduce emissions by 83% would mean in practice. Professor Richard K. Lester | Wall Street Journal
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Student Profile | Russell Rodewald SB'10“An appreciation for the beauty of the fact that an event on such a small scale (atomic interactions) can have such large consequences”— this is what drew Russell Rodewald to the field of nuclear science and engineering. Rodewald is a senior in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and is enrolled in the MIT Engineering Leadership Program. His experience and interactions in the Program have been invaluable in his preparation for the future — “The awareness and experiential knowledge on how to act on it—both of which are developed in the program through teaching the junior class—will surely form the foundation for success as a leader after MIT.” Read full interview with Rodewald >> |
Professor Mujid Kazimi wins ANS 2009 Technical Achievement Award in Thermal Hydraulics
The award was established by Thermal Hydraulics Division (THD) in 1984 to recognize outstanding past or current technical achievement. It is normally presented annually to a member of the THD. The award is granted to an individual ‘based on a major contribution to the state of the art, an important publication, a major technical achievement, or a sustained record of accomplishment and technical excellence in the art or science of Thermal Hydraulics.’ Professor Kazimi’s research includes work in nuclear systems safety, the nuclear fuel cycle, two-phase flow and heat transfer. He has served on a variety of safety, educational and research committees, including for the National Research Council and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He is a fellow of the American Nuclear Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The award will be presented on November 17 at the ANS meeting. Professor Kazimi will give a talk entitled "Re-Engineering the Light Water Reactor" at 4:00PM following the awards ceremony.
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President Obama has nominated Professor George Apostolakis as Commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
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Professor Richard Lester named as new NSE Department HeadProfessor Richard Lester has been named the next head of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, effective Sept. 1, 2009, Dean of Engineering Subra Suresh announced this week.
Lester, who will succeed Professor Ian Hutchinson as department head, has been a member of the department's faculty since 1979. He received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Imperial College and his PhD in nuclear engineering from MIT. |
Nuclear Power, Weapons Proliferation, and Climate Change: New Issue of Journal Daedalus Explores the Global Nuclear FutureIn the future there will be more nuclear technology spread across more nations than ever before. Will the growth of nuclear power lead to increased risks of nuclear weapons proliferation and nuclear terrorism? Will the nonproliferation regime be adequate to ensure safety and security in a world more widely and heavily invested in nuclear power? Policy experts, economists, scientists, and nuclear industry leaders from various perspectives and nations explore these questions in a special two-volume issue of Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The first volume will be published October 9. The authors examine the interconnected issues of a potential worldwide expansion of civilian nuclear power, attendant risks of weapons proliferation and nuclear terrorism, and the prospects for lessening the impact of climate change through growth in nuclear energy. >> read more |
Edward A. Mason, a former head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering, died at his home in Osterville, Mass., on June 23. He was 85.
For neuroscientists, one of the best ways to study brain activity is with a scanning technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which reveals blood flow in the brain. 
By improving the performance of nuclear power plants, Saaransh Gulati hopes to give nuclear energy a boost, thereby helping meet global energy demands while cutting carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming.
Nuclear Science and Engineering students Dan Casey, Mario Manuel, and Nareg Sinenian are a part of the research team at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) that has developed techniques to provide detailed images from the inside of the hellishly hot core of advanced fusion experiments.
Nuclear Science and Engineering graduate student Michael Short is quickly becoming a leader in the cinema lighting industry with his business, the LEDStorm On-Camera Light, which he designed and built in the MIT Hobby Shop.
When President Obama goes to the Copenhagen climate change summit next week, he is expected to once again declare that the U.S. will reduce its carbon emissions 83% by 2050. Even though no legally binding agreement is expected, what Mr. Obama says in Denmark will define the U.S. position in subsequent international negotiations. He will not say how the cuts will be accomplished. For Americans, the details are worth knowing.
On Friday, October 9, 2009, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate 