Nuclear Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Center of Excellence
An education and research training program to grow a diverse workforce pipeline in nuclear engineering to focus on nuclear fuel cycles and waste management
Dr. Supathorn Phongikaroon
Director
VCU (Director of Nuclear Engineering Programs)
"To facilitate university, national laboratory, and nuclear industry interactions with an eye on enhancing diversity, inclusion, and innovation, our program is fully integrated with historically black colleges and universities (Virginia Union University (VUU) and Virginia State University (VSU)), creating a one-of-kind education and research training program that has never before existed in the Commonwealth of Virginia. To achieve our goal and unite our efforts, we will work in a broad collaborative environment for nuclear fuel cycle and waste management."
Our Team.
A cross-cutting team from multiple minority-serving institutions aligned to deliver expertise and opportunity
Latest Updates
Research Projects Overview
Materials Science & Chemistry
Research Objectives 1, 3, 4, and 5 – Lead PI:
Phongikaroon (VCU), Co-PI: Rojas (VCU) and Akbar (VSU)
Project: Study of spectroelectrochemical signatures of fissile materials for advancing molten salt reactor design.
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Spectrochemical and electrochemical techniques to perform corrosion assessment of materials exposed to molten salts. After obtaining proof of principle of the corrosion chemistry, a spectroelectrochemical analyses will be utilized to elucidating the chemical reactions signatures at electrode surfaces and monitoring actinide composition during corrosion processes.
Project: In-core molten salt fuel characterization via high-fidelity fuel depletion and transmutation
analysis.
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A detailed neutronics model for a typical Molten Salt Fast Reactor will be developed using the cutting edge high fidelity computational modeling tool such as Monte Carlo code Serpent.
Research Objectives 2, 3, and 5 – Lead PI: Wu (VCU), Co-PI: Goddard (VCU)
Neutron Transport
Heat Transfer and Systems
Research Objectives 1, 2 and 3 – Lead PI: Carasik (VCU), Co-PI: Phongikaroon (VCU), Rojas
(VCU), Akbar (VSU) and Ghariban (VSU)
Project: Study of thermal hydraulic impacts on corrosion and fissile material transport in advanced fuel cycle systems and molten salt reactors via surrogate materials for cost minimization.
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Use the existing system modeling (SAM) tools paired with an experimental campaign to develop mass transport models and validation datasets of
gaseous and solid fission products within molten salt systems.
Nuclear Materials Quantification
Research Objectives 1, 3, 4, and 5 – Lead PI: Goddard (VCU), Co-PI: Wu (VCU) and Kalantarians (VUU)
Develop a method to assay fuel material flowing out of the core by detection of short-lived fission products. This work will be done via high-fidelity Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations with physical measurements of HPGe detectors (see the right figure) using calibration sources.
Economics and Finance
Research Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 – Lead PI: Korenok (VCU), Co-PI: Phongikaroon, Goddard, Wu,
Carasik, Rojas (VCU), Akbar (VSU), Ghariban (VSU), and Kalantarians (VUU)
Identify the measures (for example, agencies and nuclear industries as shown to the
right) and technological options that will raise Virgia’s efforts to align with the current state’s targets, regional targets, national targets as well as
achieving deep decarbonization of its energy system.