Breast cancer is the leading cancer in women with an estimated 13% of women in the United States developing a form of invasive breast cancer in her lifetime. The survival rate is estimated to be 85%, but the American Cancer Society estimates that early detection of breast cancer in the...
Fuel qualification timelines for new fuel technology under ideal conditions can take between 20-25 years to be fully qualified from initial concept to deployment as full fuel assemblies. To reduce the timeline and costs, new separate-effects test and integral-effects test experiments, advanced instrumentation, and advanced modeling and simulation tools are...
Control rod calibration experiment results for the Oregon State TRIGA® Reactor (OSTR) immediately following LEU conversion in 2008, and MCNP® 5 predicted rod worths from the 2008 LEU Conversion Safety Analysis Report (CSAR) are discussed. The reactivity worth of the four OSTR control rods are measured using the rod-pull method....
The testing of nuclear fuel under reactivity-initiated accident (RIA) conditions is paramount for the better understanding of the fuel’s behavior during these transient accident events. The Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) facility is a nuclear reactor that will be capable of recreating the thermal-hydraulic and neutronic boundary conditions representative of RIA...
A novel high temperature thermal instrument is proposed, which utilizes a dual-sensing platinum resistor encased in a mono-crystalline alpha-alumina (sapphire) substrate. The instrument is comprised of four platinum trace elements, oriented with 90° rotational symmetry atop a 1120 oriented crystal lattice substrate. All four of these sensors measure temperature directly...
This thesis presents a feasibility study of a thorium fueled thermal spectrum breeder-burner reactor that operates without chemical reprocessing. Materials were evaluated for their potential as moderators using standard analytical methods. These materials were then used as moderators to evaluate criticality and enrichment in an infinite fuel pin lattice. The...
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women as it accounts for about 25% of all female cancer cases. Studies have shown that early detection of breast cancer increases the chances of a positive prognosis amongst patients therefore it is crucial to provide accurate diagnosis tools in routine exams....
Understanding structural evolution in solids as composition changes is essential to materials properties prediction. Such structure-properties relationships are the theme of solid state chemistry. Materials scientists and chemists have utilized an abundance of simple crystal structures to enhance understanding of chemical and structural origins of properties in materials for decades....
Vortical structures are the driving mechanism of transition to turbulence in porous media requiring adequately resolved observations along with analysis of the scale and energy of flow within the pores. Of specific interest is to understand the vortex dynamics, energy, and turbulent mixing and transport properties in the scale of...
The atmospheric detection of four radioxenon isotopes (131mXe, 133mXe, 133Xe, and 135Xe) released during a nuclear detonation is a key tool utilized by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) to identify clandestine nuclear weapon testing activity. These radioxenon isotopes all decay via the near-simultaneous release of an electron and a...