Short Bio:
Marlene Bencomo worked with Dr. Sunil Chirayath to do a parametric study of molybdenum-99 production using a sub-critical, low-enriched uranium (LEU) assembly design proposed by Niowave, Inc. While molybdenum-99 has been produced using highly-enriched uranium (HEU), there is an international interest to produce this isotope using LEU due to the nuclear proliferation concerns of HEU. Niowave, Inc. is a facility that has plans to produce molybdenum-99 in the United States. Bencomo’s study provides computational analysis of their proposed LEU assembly design to determine the moderator and LEU enrichment that would yield the optimal production of molybdenum-99. Bencomo earned her B.S. degree in nuclear engineering from the University of New Mexico in 2014. She successfully defended her master’s thesis in March of 2016, and received her M.S. degree in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M University in May of 2016. After graduation, Bencomo took a research position with a U.S. national laboratory.
NSSPI Publications:
- M. Bencomo, "Parametric Study of molybdenum-99 Production using a Sub-critical Low Enriched Uranium Assembly Design Proposed by Niowave, Inc.", M.S. Thesis, Nuclear Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX (2016).
- Robert M. Zedric, Scott L. Stewart, Blake A. Palles, Timothy W. Jacomb-Hood, Stephen B. Gerlt, David A. Vermillion, Corey Keith, Marlene Bencomo., "Top Things to Know About Special Nuclear Material", INMM 56th Annual Meeting, Indian Wells, California, 12-16 July 2015.
- T.K. Bhardwaj, P. Mendoza, R. Du, M. Bencomo, J. Allred, M. Swinney, C. Folden, S.S. Chirayath, "Determination of decontamination factor for various radioisotopes during the PUREX process of irradiated DUO2", 249th American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition, Denver, CO, USA, March 22-26, 2015.