During the week of October 24-28, a group of TAMU Nuclear
Engineering students visited Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
in Oak Ridge, TN, to participate in the "Non-Destructive Assay
(NDA) Applications for International Safeguards" practical short
course at ORNL's Safeguards Laboratory as part of the
"Radiation Detection and Nuclear Material Measurements" class at
TAMU (NUEN-605).
The class consisted of both lectures and valuable hands-on
experience with safeguards instrumentation and software, providing
the students with practical understanding of a number of NDA
techniques used for measurements and characterization of special
nuclear material.
Topics covered during the class included: uranium enrichment
measurements, uranium holdup measurements, neutron coincidence
counting using an AWCC, portal monitors, and portable NDA
instrumentation operation.
In addition, students attended several technical tours to the
Spallation Neutron Source, ORTEC's High Purity Germanium Detector
Assembly Facility, the X-10 Graphite Reactor, ORNL's Supercomputer
Facility, the Y-12 National Security Complex, and the National
Transportation Research Center.
The students were accompanied by NSSPI faculty members Dr.
Alexander Solodov, Dr. Sunil Chirayath, and Dr. Craig Marianno.
