News and Announcements:
Read all about….Nuclear Security, Safeguards, and Non-Proliferation in a textbook from Brookhaven National Laboratory! Deterring Nuclear Proliferation: The Importance of IAEA Safeguards is a free textbook for newcomers to and students of non-proliferation, or anyone curious about the subject. Feel free to download your copy here: www.bnl.gov/NNS/IAEAtextbook.php. Many thanks go out to the NNS Staff at Brookhaven, especially Susan Pepper who informed us of this resource!
PSU INMM recently completed its journey to and from Vienna, Austria to present at and participate in the INMM/ESARDA Joint Annual Meeting from May 22nd-26th! This was the first joint meeting to be held in Europe and everyone was excited to be there to take in the presentations, panels, plenaries, special sessions, and networking opportunities. Our chapter also had two presentations: our advisor, Matt Zerphy, presented on simulations of on-site vs off-site response at a generic small modular reactor (in collaboration with Calvin Luzum, Sandia National Laboratory and Fletcher Boone, Naval Reactors) while Chris Balbier, Jonathan Balog, and Aaron Fjeldsted presented on the takeaways from the “Security of Advanced Reactors Workshop” the chapter hosted in November 2022! While we wait to hear about the top presentation awards, we learned that Aaron was awarded a well-deserved Memorial Scholarship to the tune of $1,000 for his leadership and dedication to INMM and our chapter!
While in Vienna, the chapter met with several PSU alumni for lunch at Cafe Donito in Donau City to connect as well as learn more about working in nuclear safeguards! This distinguished list included: Christopher McGahee (IAEA Analyst), Sarah Sarnoski (Sandia National Laboratory), Marc Wonders (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Luis Ocampo Girraldo (Idaho National Laboratory), Kyle Hartig (Assistant Professor, University of Florida) and Brian Boyer (IAEA INPRO-retired).
More on the conference will follow…and be placed on its own page!
PSU INMM just completed its read through and discussion of Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan Gave Up the Bomb by Dr. Togzhan Kassenova! At our first meeting on February 6th in the Hallwell Nuclear Innovation Commons (NIC), we dove into the Part 1 (“Ruled by Russia, Scarred by Nuclear Tests”) of the book. We met again on February 21st to discuss Part 2 (“Freedom Dawns, but the Arsenal Remains”).
As a book club, we also participated in the virtual discussion with Dr. Kassenova and the INMM Professional Development Program (PDP) on February 22nd from 10am-12pm, where we made up about 1/3rd of the attendees! Dr. Kassenova first spoke about her inspiration for the book, specifically from her doctoral research in international relations/security and nonproliferation while studying in the UK. She realized that there were only a handful of countries that have eliminated nuclear weapons and that her native Kazakhstan hasn’t had its story told, which she hoped to address through this book. She also spoke about the challenges writing the book, specifically regarding the trauma of speaking with test victims in Semipalatinsk and the limited number of documents available (or missing) in Kazakhstan and Russia. After this, she then began to address comments and questions from the participants, including many of our own questions!
We are trying to get a link to the recorded discussion with Dr. Kassenova and will hopefully have that soon! Here is the link to the recording (only what INMM can release): INMM PDP Book Club Talk – YouTube
PSU INMM is kicking off the new year with its Book Club reading the long-awaited 2022 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR)! This document is extremely important to national and international nuclear weapons policy, which makes it a must read for all INMM members. The chapter will have a meeting at 7pm on January 10th via Zoom to discuss this critical document.
Our chapter will also be taking part in the inaugural INMM PDP Book Club reading/discussion of Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan Gave Up the Bomb by Dr. Togzhan Kassenova! The club is planning on purchasing books on behalf of interested members, but should you wish to buy it on your own, you can get a 20% discount using the code KASSENOVA20 when buying through the Stanford University Press website. On February 22nd, from 10 am-12 pm, Dr. Kassenova herself will participate in a virtual discussion of the book! Details to come on this special opportunity!
PSU INMM recently hosted over 100 attendees in person and virtually for the Security of Advanced Reactors Workshop from November 2nd-4th! This workshop brought together academia, industry, government, national labs, and NGOs to discuss advanced reactors and how security systems can be modified and/or designed for advanced reactor concepts.
Matthew Durbin, the former president for PSU INMM, recently defended his Ph. D dissertation and has joined the prestigious ranks of our PSU INMM alumni! He is now working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California as a Computational Physicist/Engineer. Congratulations Matt!
Meet our new Officers for the 2022-23 Academic Year: President – Aaron Fjeldsted, Vice President – Madi Gitzen, Treasurer – Chis Balbier, Secretary – Jonathan Balog, Social & Technical Chair – Sean Bistany. Learn more about them here!
Our Chapter’s Book Club continues with Thomas S. Kuhn’s “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” (Fall 2021).
Jonathan Balog, INMM PSU Student Chapter Vice President, presented some of the work his work using 3D printing, shared the advantages / challenges of additive manufacturing (AM), and the possibilities for 3D modeling and AM in the nuclear sector. This presentation was delivered both in person and virtually through the newly dedicated Nuclear Innovation Commons (Fall 2021).
Meet our new Officers: President – Chis Balbier, Vice President – Jonathan Balog, Treasurer – Susanna Angermeier, Secretary – Aaron Fjeldsted. Learn more about them here!
Pierre-Clément Simon, recent Penn State Ph.D. graduate and INMM member, participated as a panelist for the NRIC’s Webinar Series “What Inspires Us” (Spring 2021).
Our Chapter’s book club will begin a new book this semester (Spring 2021). We will be reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes.
Our chapter cohosted a fascinating workshop on the topic of Nuclear Security from November 9-11, 2020.
Our chapter started a book club! Our first book (Fall 2020) was The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump by Sec. William J. Perry and Tom Z. Collina.
Students Marc Wonders and Matthew Durbin presented and chaired at the (first ever Virtual) 2020 INMM annual meeting. Matthew Durbin won the best poster award.
Two PSU INMM members received Division Finalist Student Paper awards at the 2019 Annual Meeting! Only one paper is selected per division. Congrats to our members, and to all who contributed to the papers!
Marc Wonders: J.D. Williams Student Paper Award from the Education and Training Division –
“Future Technical and Policy Challenges in Nuclear Security and Physical Protection”
Matthew Durbin: J. D. Williams Student Paper Award from the Nuclear Security and Physical Protection Technical Division – “Development of Machine Learning Algorithms for Directional Gamma Ray Detection”
2018: PSU-INMM members visiting the LIGO site in Hanford, WA (left) and B Reactor (right) as part of the the INMM Discovery Workshop, May 1-2 (see events page for more details).