American Nuclear Society, Summaries of Nuclear Physics

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Purdue University Student Section

Samuel Glasstone Report 2012

American Nuclear Society

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Officers and Committee Chairs
• Special Events Committee
  • Fukushima Dai-ichi Discussion Panel
  • Purdue ANS NUKE Week
  • Homecoming Booth
  • Purdue ANS Nuclear Science Teacher Workshop
  • CMUXE Tours
  • Trip to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
  • Visit to DC Cook Nuclear Plant
  • Purdue ANS PRIME Lab Tour
• Corporate Relations.............................................................................................................
  • Dominion Company Night
  • Nuclear Engineering Opportunity Nights (NEON)
  • Website Update
• Outreach Activities
  • Purdue ANS Visits Local High Schools
  • College Mentoring For Kids
  • National Nuclear Science Week – Girl Scout Poster Session
  • Engineering Week
  • Student Organization Fair
  • Radiation Safety Demonstration
  • Introduce A Girl To Engineering
  • ANS Hot Cell Construction
  • Happy Hollow Elementary School Visit
  • Spring Fest
• Purdue ANS Student Section General Meeting with ANS President Dr. Eric Loewen
• 2012 ANS Student Conference
• Conclusion

Officers and Committee Chairs

(top row, left to right): Anthony Wurl, Paul Branham, Kara Luitjohan, Weston Cundiff (bottom row, left to right): Tony Alberti, Nam Phan, Zach Schriver, Justin Knowles

President: Justin Knowles, Junior Responsibilities included organizing section meetings, communicating with potential speakers, and organizing major events. In addition he acted as a liaison between the student section and the Purdue nuclear engineering department. As President, Justin took an active role in being a co-chair of all committees and assisting in project leadership and project execution.

Vice President: Zachary Shriver, Senior Responsibilities include budget validation, project planning and approval, social event organization, and overall logistics. He enjoys his post, and hopes to one day retire in the West where he can settle down. He has also applied and was accepted to the WISE (Washington Internships for Students of Engineering) Program where he will be investigating technology policy and its application to the nuclear industry this summer.

Treasurer: Kara Luitjohan, Senior Responsibilities include providing financial advice to the executive committee, keeping record of all the transactions, collection of money, and the financial paperwork, including check requests and reimbursement forms.

Secretary: Paul Branham, Senior Responsibilities as secretary included keeping minutes for officer meetings, managing the club mailing list, and helping with event and travel plans for various activities.

Outreach Chair: Nam Phan, Junior Responsibilities include planning, organizing, and executing outreach events that sought to inform the general public on nuclear science and technology. Outreach focused on educating the next generation through classroom visits and educating the local public plus the student body through participation in campus events, like Engineering Week, National Nuclear Science Week, and Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day.

Special Events Chair: Weston Cundiff, Senior Responsibilities include planning large events for public outreach and professional development of our members. Events this year included Nuke Week 2011, Nuclear Science Teacher Workshop, tour of Fermi Lab and D.C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant and some smaller campus events and tours.

Corporate Relations Chair: Tony Alberti, Junior Responsibilities include that of establishing and maintaining relationships with industry officials of both commercial and government institutions. Furthermore, he held a committee of underclassmen that helped him in his goals for the year. Those goals included that of hosting the Nuclear Engineering Opportunity Night (NEON) for the fall of 2011, organizing NEON for the fall of 2012, hosting company nights here on campus, and calling industry officials to try and spread the work about what Purdue ANS is all about.

Purdue ANS Nuke Week

(September 26th^ to 30th, 2011)

Every year Purdue ANS throws a Nuke Week event. This year‟s event took place September 26 th^ through 30th. The purpose of this event is to get the word out about ANS, network with the school, and educate the public about nuclear applications. Nuke Week was an all-week event that had several different activities, including a grill out, bowling, sophomore orientation, and a radiation information session. All members of ANS helping with the event were provided with a free t-shirt. This event was made possible with money provided by SOGA (Student Organization Grant Allocation).

Grill Out (September 26th, 2011)

The first event of the week was the grill out. Several grills were set up with an information board in the engineering mall at Purdue.

The engineering mall at Purdue is centrally located to many of the educational buildings at Purdue. This makes it an ideal location as many students walk through to and from class. Grill outs are a relatively common event for groups at Purdue to raise awareness and funds. Purdue‟s ANS grill out differed from other clubs as all of the food was free but students had to ask a question about ANS, or anything nuclear related in order to get food

Several members of ANS with industry or research experience went along the line answering questions and talking about nuclear topics with students. This turned out to be a great way to get people interested in ANS and nuclear topics in general, by having everyone to ask a question. Many students felt comfortable about asking questions and as a result many stayed after the food to continue discussing the nuclear field.

Purdue ANS volunteers grill burgers and hot dogs for the hungry Purdue students

Nicholas Wilson speaks with a student interested in nuclear technology while she waits in line for food

Nuclear Bowling (September 27th, 2011)

Another event for Nuke Week was Nuclear Bowling night. This event was ANS funded for members and friends to come out and relax and get to know each other better while having fun.

Sophomore Orientation (September 28th, 2011)

At Purdue, engineering majors declare their major after their freshman year. This means that incoming sophomores are beginning their first semester of nuclear classes and may not be fully aware of everything that is a part of the School of Nuclear Engineering. For this reason, a Sophomore Orientation night was held by the upper classman for the sophomores. The orientation allowed the sophomores to meet the upperclassman, and ask any questions they had about classes or about the program. A tour of the Nuclear Engineering building was also given, with information about how to get a key to the building as well as set up their printing accounts to access the printers in the nuke building. After the tour, the upper classmen and sophomores got to know each other with a grilled cheese social provided by ANS members.

After this a presentation about the nuclear engineering program was presented followed up with a game of nuclear trivia.

Radiation Information Session (September 30th, 2011)

On the final day of Nuke week a Radiation Information Session was held in the atrium of Armstrong Hall. This session had an information board about radiation as well as a Geiger counter demonstration.

The Armstrong atrium proved to be a good location as many students walk through there after class, and several would stop for a cookie and to read

Numerous upperclassmen also participated in the nuclear trivia game to test their knowledge versus the sophomore class

Purdue ANS set up its displays and demonstrations in a high-traffic area to attract a large number of people

Purdue ANS Nuclear Science Teacher Workshop

(February 11th, 2012)

This year, Purdue ANS put on their annual teacher workshop event. Twelve science teachers from around the state of Indiana came to Purdue‟s award winning building, Armstrong Hall, to attend the educator workshop with presentations from ANS members. This workshop helped science and physics teachers develop their understanding of nuclear sciences and the ability to share that knowledge with their students. Awareness and comprehension of nuclear technologies in the community was raised and information on careers in science, engineering, technology, and mathematics was provided in hope of encouraging students to achieve those career goals.

The workshop consisted of a series of interactive lectures on nuclear technology and physics. Presentations were given on several topics selected to reflect the Indiana‟s State Science Standards: Physics: P.1.29-P.1.35, P.2.8-P.2. Chemistry: C.1.24, C.1.42, C.1. Integrated Chemistry and Physics: CP.1.8, CP.2.10- Environmental Science: ENV.1.16, ENV.1.24, ENV.1. Earth and Space Science: ES.1. Presentations were designed to reflect these standards.

“ Excellent knowledge base of presenters, who were good public speakers. Extremely well organized.” – Workshop Attendee

Lenka Kollar giving a presentation on nuclear non-proliferation

Atomic Physics History “In youth we learn, in age we understand.” – Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach. Major discoveries of the elementary particles were discussed, starting with the discovery of fission and the first chain reaction in 1942 at Chicago Pile-1 at the University of Chicago. The theoretical development preceding experimental results was discussed in nuclear atomic physics, using Dirac‟s postulation of the existence of the positron in 1928, when it was not discovered until 1932. Democritus‟s vision of the atomos was described as well as the early models of atoms. Rutherford‟s backscattering experiment was explained in detail and Niels Bohr‟s work with electrons and his planetary model were analyzed. Important discoveries in radiation including those of Henri Becquerel and Marie Curie were also discussed.

Radiation, Radioactivity and Detection In this presentation, the basic building blocks of the elements were discussed. Teachers learned about different types of radiation and how to be safe with them. ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) was discussed with the teachers as well the main ways to reduce exposure, time, distance, shielding and amount. Isotopes of atoms were explained and how they play a role in radioactive decay. An M&M half-life activity was done to demonstrate the concept of half-life and how radioactivity decreases over time. Exposure to radiation was discussed with relevant units as well as differences between absorbed dose and equivalent dose. Radiation effects on biological materials were explained as well as health effects from acute doses of radiation. Calculating yearly dose of activity was done with the teachers, and the concept that radiation is everywhere was stressed. Various radiation detectors were described including Geiger-Mueller, scintillator, and solid state detectors.

Nuclear Physics The nuclear physics presentation was one of the more technical presentations. Fundamental forces in nature such as strong, electromagnetic, weak, and gravity were explained in depth. Einstein‟s mass-energy equivalence and its meanings were also presented. Other important effects of particles that were discussed included: wave-particle duality, Young‟s double slit experiment, the photoelectric effect, Heisenberg‟s uncertainty principle and the implications of quantum mechanics.

Fission and Fusion Explanations of the difference between fission and fusion were presented. The binding energy per nucleon vs. atomic mass was shown to illustrate the energy changes for both fission and fusion. Comparisons were made between the kinetic energy from fission and that of coal combustion. The fission chain reaction was explained as with what criticality is and how it is used in reactor analysis. Fusion was explained using stars as examples. Current research of fusion was explained and examples of the Tokamak and ITER reactors were provided.

done, including examples from Purdue‟s own PRIME lab was presented, food irradiation and how it can be used to kill bacteria on food, even on food that is already packaged, sanitation of medical supplies and imaging for oil and cracks in pipes.

Non-Proliferation and Policy Non-Proliferation issues in the United States were presented as well as how policy has affected the nuclear industry. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 was discussed as well as the withdrawal of the NRC license application for Yucca Mountain. Additional topics discussed were The Blue Ribbon Commission‟s final report findings, how nuclear material from the nuclear fuel cycle could be diverted to nuclear weapons and the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty of 1970 with its regards to the International Atomic Energy Agency. This presentation also went into homeland security and how it monitors for atomic weapons.

Careers in Nuclear Engineering This presentation went over areas where nuclear professionals are needed as well as the education requirements for them. Career opportunities discussed including national labs, the military, the power industry, medical fields, nuclear science and research, and fusion research.

Purdue Nuclear Engineering The school of Nuclear Engineering at Purdue was explained to the teachers, giving them a better understanding of what nuclear engineers do here. Purdue‟s curriculum was described as well as the vast amount of research areas conducted by Purdue professors.

Rutherford Activity: The Rutherford activity was done to show the teachers the findings from Rutherford‟s gold foil experiment. Teachers broke up into groups and were given marbles and a small experiment set up. The marbles (Alpha particles) were thrown at a target (atom). Most of the marbles were found to go straight through the target with no interaction, while those that hit the „nucleus‟ bounced back. The goal of this experiment was to demonstrate how compact the nucleus is in an atom, and how much of it is essentially „empty space‟. The teachers all found this experiment to be a practical, fun application for their own classrooms.

Radiation Demonstration: After the radiation, radioactivity and detection presentation, a radiation demonstration was performed. All teachers were provided with a Geiger-Mueller counter that they got to keep and where able to learn how to use them by detecting radiation from an alpha, beta, and gamma sources. Other radiation sources were also looked at, including natural uranium ore, fiesta-ware, and a smoke detector. Teachers were also able to see that distance had a large impact on the amount of radioactivity, especially with the alpha source. Shielding effectiveness was compared

between paper, steel and lead. Many teachers were surprised to see that the fiesta-ware was the most radioactive object that we brought. PUR-1 Reactor Tour:

Possibly the most anticipated activity was the tour of Purdue‟s very own reactor, PUR-1. PUR-1 is located on Purdue‟s campus below the Electrical Engineering building; it is a 1kW pool type reactor. A tour of this was given by Purdue‟s Radiation Lab director, Jere Jenkins.

After the tour of the reactor teachers had a question and answer session with Jere on topics ranging from electrical generation to Chernobyl.

PRIME Lab Tour ( March 7th, 2012)

Teachers were also given the opportunity to tour the PRIME lab on Purdue‟s campus. The PRIME lab contains a linear particle accelerator; it is one of five particle accelerators in the world capable of doing carbon dating.

Promotional postcard displaying PUR-1’s glow during operation

Attendees of the Teacher Workshop looking down into the reactor pool during the PUR-1 tour

Jere Jenkins giving a short introduction to some of the background and history of PUR- 1

Thomas Clifton, a PRIME lab assistant, giving a tour of the particle accelerator facility located underneath Purdue’s engineering campus

CMUXE Tour

(February 1st, 2012)

A group of thirty ANS members visited the laboratory of current head of the School of Nuclear Engineering, Dr. Ahmed Hassanein. The tour included three rooms; each with a different laser apparatus for the multitudes of experiments covered there. Brandon Verhoff, current ANS member and graduate student under Dr. Hassanein, was the guide during the event.

Brandon Verhoff, a graduate student at CMUXE, explaining to Purdue ANS members how the laser arrangement is setup and how the orange boundary contains the green laser emitted

Trip to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

(February 24th, 2012)

On Friday, February 24th the Purdue American Nuclear Society took a trip to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, located out of Batavia, Illinois. This trip consisted of touring several accelerator production/operation facilities, the main Wilson Hall, and learning about some experimentation being conducted at the lab. Joining Purdue ANS were students from the University of Illinois and University of Wisconsin ANS Student Sections. Along with being a great educational opportunity, this trip was also used to enhance student relations between our universities.

Visit to DC Cook Nuclear Plant

(March 2nd, 2012)

A group of students from Purdue‟s School of Nuclear Engineering visited the DC Cook Nuclear Plant in Bridgman, Michigan on Friday March 2 nd. In attendance were nine students (4 sophomores, 2 juniors, and 3 seniors) from Purdue's American Nuclear Society Student Section. The tour began with a trip around the turbine building to see the condensers, heat exchangers, turbines, and generators for each unit. The group was able to step inside the radiological health monitor room to view live feed of the spent fuel pool and even saw a man suiting up to enter it for

Group photo of the three ANS sections’ members who toured Fermilab together

A multi-section ANS tour group views a manufacturing facility for spare parts needed for an accelerator

Group photo of the Purdue ANS members who visited DC Cook Nuclear Plant, outside of their facility

Purdue ANS PRIME Lab Tour

(March 7th, 2012)

Twenty ANS members, consisting mainly of sophomores and juniors, toured the PRIME lab on March 7th^ 2012. PRIME is located a couple stories beneath the physics building at Purdue. PRIME has a large research particle accelerator that is used for a variety of things including university research, people using it for their PhD research or their post doc. PRIME is also paid by outside groups to run experiments. The particles are accelerated down a tube and can be split off into separate analysis sections depending on what specifically wants to be looked at. This lab can also do carbon dating and research for medical isotopes; their current project has to do with studying the effects of Al- on patients with Alzheimer‟s.

Much like the reactor, it was interesting that the vast majority of campus did not realize this lab exists right beneath where we walk every day. Purdue ANS students were very excited to see this and learn more about their campus. A lot of students got a better idea of some of the theoretical research that engineers and scientists can do.

View of the main accelerator of PRIME, facing in the direction the particles travel to be accelerated

Purdue ANS students touring the particle accelerator with Thomas Clifton, a PRIME lab assistant, explaining to them how the particles are generated

Corporate Relations

Dominion Company Night

(February 14th, 2012)

Dominion Nuclear came to Purdue to host an event in order to interact with students interested in future co-op opportunities at their company. The two representatives present were also Purdue graduates. The event was held at an ANS Student Section general meeting to allow for the maximum number of students possible to be present. During the event, the Dominion representatives spoke in regards to their company mission, how they like to include co-ops in their business, and certain technical projects that went on during the past few months. After the presentation a game of “ Nuclear Pictionary” was hosted by the representatives. This game was invented by Dominion in order to connect with the students on an intellectual and social scale as well as to judge potential interns and co-ops. During this meeting it was decided that Dominion would help fund students in attending the ANS Nationals Student Conference and other possible ANS needs. Furthermore, Dominion established their interest in future recruitment beyond this calendar year. Through their efforts to work with the Purdue ANS student organization, Dominion will be seen in positive light by the students at Purdue for many years to come.

Nuclear Engineering Opportunity Nights (NEON)

(September 12th^ and 13th, 2011)

In an effort to increase industry recruitment at Purdue University‟s Nuclear Engineering Undergraduate and Graduate student body, the American Nuclear Society (ANS) student section has created an annual event, Nuclear Engineering Opportunity Nights (NEON). At NEON, all nuclear engineering undergraduate and graduate students were welcome to talk to company representatives in a typical career fair setting.

Lenka Kollar presenting as part of the representation for the National Nuclear Security Administration