Research Areas

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Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering

Research Areas

The College of Engineering Summary of Engineering Research includes current and past research in the Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering Department.

Research Laboratories and Groups

Within the Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering (NPRE) Department are several groups--including faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students--working together on significant energy and materials research projects. Currently active research groups include:

Dr. Brent Heuser
Heuser Research Group

Dr. George Miley
The Fusion Studies Lab
In additional to general fusion research, the research group is working on inertial electrostatic confinement fusion in conjunction with Daimler-Benz Aerospace, dense plasma focus, plus much of the pioneering work on direct energy conversion for nuclear pumped lasers.

The LENRs Group
Part of the research in the Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) Lab consists of experiments that use either an electrolysis process, a high pressure, or an arc process to force hydrogen atoms into the lattice structure of a thin film (500-1000 A) of metal. A major goal of this research is to examine the metal before and after the experiment, to establish the signatures of LENRs by studying transmutation products. Another goal is to measure the energy output of the unit. If an ample amount is released, such cells offer an attractive small power source for future distributed energy systems.

Dr. Ling Jian Meng
Radiation Imaging Group
Our research is on developing radiation sensor and systems for visualizing the distribution of radioactivity in surrounding objects, patients, and small lab animals etc. Current emphasis includes (a) developing novel radiation sensors for detecting X-ray, gamma rays and neutrons, and (b) developing nuclear techniques for detecting and imaging a tiny amount radiolabeled molecules inside small lab animals.

Dr. David W. Miller, NATC
PWR ALARA Association, Lisle Meeting (July 20, 2006)

Dr. David Ruzic
Center for Plasma Material Interactions
The group studies particle-surface interactions relevant to fusion power and materials processing systems through a combination of computational and experimental means.

Dr. James F. Stubbins
The Materials Group
The group investigates a wide variety of topics within the realm of materials research including mechanical properties, microstructural evaluations, plus radiation damage investigations, and modeling. Materials such as copper alloys nickel-based alloys, stainless steels, ferritic steels, and silicon-carbide composites are studied using a variety of analytical techniques electron microscopy and spectroscopy.

Dr. Rizwan Uddin
Virtual Education and Research Laboratory
The group focuses on the development of innovative numerical methods and their implementation on high performance computing machines. Research efforts center on problems in nuclear engineering, with emphasis on thermal-hydraulics and reactor physics.

Research Facilities

A dense plasma focus fusion-related device for high temperature plasma studies and an ultra-high vacuum laboratory for plasma-material interaction studies are available.

  • Laboratories are available for environmental studies and nuclear spectroscopy, health physics and radiation studies, nuclear waste management, thermal hydraulics, and reactor safety, reactor physics and reactor kinetics, controlled nuclear fusion, direct energy conversion, and lasers and plasma physics.
  • The NPRE also has a direct link to the National Magnetic Fusion Computer Center in Livermore, California.
  • The College of Engineering Materials Research Laboratory and Materials Engineering-Mechanical Behavior Program provide a variety of facilities for studies of nuclear materials.
  • The College of Engineering is a leader in supercomputing research, and the campus is one of four National Centers for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
  • In addition, a wide array of microcomputers and workstations are available for student use.

Research Archive

The College of Engineering maintains a comprehensive archive of current and past research from its many departments, including the Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering Department (available in .pdf or html).