Parker Forehand won Top Design Team Leader for his role on the Fast Neutron Source Design for Criticality Safety team.
The nuclear engineering department congratulates our senior design award winners. While the seniors did not get a chance to show off their projects in person this year, the winners were recognized in an online presentation. All of the teams worked hard to pull off their projects despite the limitations of quarantine. This year’s winners demonstrated excellence through technical expertise and an ability to work well as teams, among other traits.
Top NE Senior Design Award
The Nuclear Fuel Storage Temperature Monitoring System Team
This project, sponsored by EPRI, is a joint venture between the Department of Nuclear Engineering and the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science to develop a low-cost temperature sensor for monitoring used nuclear fuel in dry cask storage. Presently, once used nuclear fuel is removed from on-site cooling pools, it is stored in large metal canisters surrounded by concrete, where the fuel continues to be cooled via natural convection. A key design requirement of these systems however is to ensure continuous airflow and monitor for blockages, a task that is currently performed via daily inspections. This project seeks to replace these daily inspections with a low cost, low maintenance, and high accuracy device that monitors the outlet temperature of these vents and notifies plant workers of a temperature anomaly.
Team Members: Martino Hooghkirk (NE), John Wagner (NE), Brian Chrisman (EECS), Christian Haynes (EECS), Melissa Quirin (EECS), and Michaela Williams (EECS)
Best Nuclear Engineering Design Teamwork Award
The Fast Neutron Source Design for Criticality Safety Team
This project involved the creation of operation procedures and a criticality safety evaluation of the loading and storage of fuel material and spectrum-moderating material in the new Fast Neutron Source for the new nuclear engineering building. As part of this effort, the group will also design the working table and storage container for the materials along with establishing a criticality safety program for the department.
Team Members: Bridget Wood, Felipe Novais, Matthew Hipkins, and Parker Forehand
Best Interdisciplinary Design Award
The Rapid Autonomous Pneumatic Transport System Team
This project’s aim was to design and construct a pneumatic transfer system to transport small material samples between a material loader, a nuclear irradiation facility located on a different floor of a building, a radiation counting system, and a disposal canister. The system should operate autonomously, provide radiation transparency, and strongly consider safety and reliability.
Team Members: Cameron Salyer, Kaleb Peete, Bradley Bloedorn, Seth Walker, and Marcos Escudero
Nuclear Engineering Top Design Team Leader
The Fast Neutron Source Design for Criticality Safety Team (see description above)
Team Leader: Parker Forehand