RICHLAND — Brady Hanson, with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, will present “From Commercial Spent Fuel to Innovative Fuel Designs” at 12:10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12, at WSU Tri-Cities.
Hanson will discuss the effect of spent fuel chemistry on properties such as oxidation and dissolution, resonance absorption and the rim effect and how we have applied the knowledge gained from studying spent fuel to new fuel designs. These designs include incorporation of dopants in the UO2 matrix and a hybrid design for weapons-grade Pu disposition.
This nuclear-related engineering professional development seminar will take place in the West Building, Room 256. It also is available by videoconference at WSU Pullman in Murrow, Room 53. Admission to the seminar is free and open to the public.
For the past 17 years, Hanson has been performing research on commercial spent fuel oxidation and dissolution to support Yucca Mountain. He was the principal investigator for one of the original NERI projects to examine whether the addition of dopants could facilitate achieving higher burnups.
Hanson led the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory team that recently submitted a patent for a new way of dissolving spent fuel for reprocessing. At the end of the Yucca Mountain Project, he was focusing on new fuel designs as well as long-term dry storage.
Hanson holds a bachelor’s of science in chemical engineering, a master’s degree in engineering and a doctorate in nuclear engineering. He held the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management graduate fellowship while a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley, where he got his introduction to working on the Yucca Mountain Project.
For more information on this and other nuclear engineering seminars, contact seminar coordinator Richard Stout at rstout2b@charter.net or 528-7023.