COLLOQUIUM
Monday, March 7, 2005
"The Reactor-Accelerator Coupling Experiments
(RACE) Project
of the U.S. Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative "
Presented By
Denis Beller, Ph.D.
Research Professor, RACE Project Director
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Post-colloquium Job Opportunity
Pizza Party
Nuclear engineering seniors
who will graduate during the spring or summer of 2005
Who might be interested in going to UNLV or
ISU to work on their M.S. degree
Who might be interested in working at the Idaho Accelerator Center at
ISU during the summer
Other students interested in opportunities at ISU &
UNLV or the AFCI project (national labs) are welcome.
In the university-based Reactor-Accelerator Coupling Experiments (RACE) Project of the U.S. Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI), a series of accelerator-driven subcritical systems experiments will be conducted at the Idaho State University’s Idaho Accelerator Center (ISU-IAC), at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, and at the Texas A&M University. In these experiments, we will use bremsstrahlung from electron accelerators to induce photo-neutron production in heavy-metal targets. The photoneutrons will then initiate fission reactions in systems that will include a compact, transportable subcritical assembly at ISU and TRIGA reactors at UT-Austin and Texas A&M. Other participation in this project includes the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the University of Michigan as well as Los Alamos, Argonne, and Idaho National Laboratories. Prof. Beller will describe the RACE Project, discuss ongoing research and participants, give some comparisons of experimental results to modeling, and present short-term and long-term goals and plans.
Coffee and Cookies 3:45 PM - Colloquium 4 - 5 PM
3105 Etcheverry Hall
BIO: Denis E. Beller (Ph.D., Purdue Univ., 1986; M.S.N.E, Air Force Inst. of Tech., 1981; B.S.Ch.E., Univ. of Colorado, 1976) is a Research Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), and a Visiting Research Professor at the Idaho State University (ISU), where he directs the Reactor-Accelerator Coupling Experiments (RACE) Project for the Idaho Accelerator Center (IAC) and the national Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) Program. The AFCI is a national research program for reusing and recycling used nuclear fuel and reducing the volume and radio-toxicity of its waste. Dr. Beller coordinated university participation for the AFCI and its predecessors for five years. He has a background in engineering design and analysis and in management of defense systems, and his research activities have included design and analysis of conceptual systems for nuclear effects testing with inertial confinement fusion, conceptual design of nuclear-pumped lasers, systems studies of long-term national and global deployment of nuclear energy, and formulation and testing of solid rocket propellants. He also managed a rocket test facility, a nuclear detection laboratory that monitored radioactive emissions to support Safegaurd D of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and an intelligence division that collected and disseminated foreign science and technology information. After graduation from Purdue in 1986, Dr. Beller was a professor at the Air Force Institute of Technology, where he taught graduate nuclear engineering (weapons effects) to military officers for more than seven years. As a result of teaching, research, and professional activities, the civilian and military faculty selected him as the first tenured military professor in AFIT's 70-year history.
