Seminar: Transient Testing Nuclear Fuels and Materials: Next Generation of Fuel Safety Testing in the U.S.

Transient testing of nuclear fuels and materials requires unique facilities and expertise. Historically, many in-pile transient experimental programs and facilities in the U.S. have provided foundational data and understanding supporting nuclear fuel development and licensing, nuclear reactor development, and validation of modeling and simulation tools. The near-term restart of the Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) facility at Idaho National Laboratory represents a return of transient testing capability in the U.S. after more than 20 years without it. This presentation will provide an overview of transient testing in the context of fuel safety research and highlight current developments in experimental capabilities that will lead to the next generation of testing in the U.S.

About the Speaker

Dr. Colby Jensen is an R&D engineer in the Nuclear Science and Technology Division of the Idaho National Laboratory. His research expertise is in thermal transport in materials, instrumentation and measurements, thermodynamics and heat transfer, and transient nuclear fuel performance for oxide and metallic fuels in light water reactor and sodium-cooled fast reactor systems.

Dr. Jensen currently leads instrumentation development for transient irradiation experiments and performs fuel performance and safety thermal analysis for irradiation experiments in the Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) facility and the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). Dr. Jensen is closely involved with broad in-pile instrumentation development with emphasis on techniques for in-pile measurement of thermal properties.

Dr. Jensen received his joint-doctorate degree in Mechanical engineering from Utah State University and in Energy Engineering from the Universite de Reims Champagne-Ardenne in 2014. He has more than 45 peer-reviewed publications and is a member of the executive committee for the Material Science and Technology Division of the American Nuclear Society.

Hosted by Professors Marat Khafizov and Professor Carol Smidts