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NPRE 596 Graduate Seminar Series - Rusty Towell

Event Type
Seminar/Symposium
Sponsor
NPRE 596 Graduate Seminar Series
Location
103 Talbot Laboratory, 104 S. Wright St., Urbana, IL
Date
Feb 8, 2022   4:00 - 4:50 pm  
Speaker
Rusty Towell, Ph.D., Director of NEXT Lab, Professor of Engineering and Physics, Abilene Christian University
Cost
Free and Open to the Public
E-Mail
nuclear@illinois.edu
Phone
217-333-2295
Views
23
Originating Calendar
NPRE seminars

Building the NEXT University Research Advanced Reactor at ACU

 

Abstract:  The Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing (NEXT) Lab at Abilene Christian University is building the first molten salt reactor licensed as a university research reactor by the NRC.  NEXT is building this reactor in collaboration with the NEXT Research Alliance (NEXTRA) which includes Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, and the University of Texas at Austin and is sponsored by Natura Resources.  The mission of ACU’s NEXT Lab is to provide global solutions to the world’s need for energy, water and medical isotopes by advancing the technology of molten salt reactors while educating future leaders in nuclear science and engineering. Our goals, licensing status, current R&D, and schedule will be shared. 

 

Bio: Rusty Towell is the founding director for ACU’s premiere research project called NEXT (Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing). The mission of ACU’s NEXT Lab is to provide global solutions to the world’s need for energy, water and medical isotopes by advancing the technology of molten salt reactors while educating future leaders in nuclear science and engineering. Established in 2016, NEXT is building a molten salt research reactor in collaboration with the NEXT Research Alliance (NEXTRA) which includes Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, and the University of Texas at Austin.

 

Rusty has a BS degree in Engineering Physics from ACU and a Ph.D in nuclear physics from the University of Texas. He served in the U.S. Navy where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant while serving as an instructor at the Naval Nuclear Power School. Rusty completed a postdoctoral research fellowship with Los Alamos National Laboratory working on the PHENIX experiment at the Brookhaven National Lab, and in 2001 he joined the physics faculty at ACU. 

 

For the past 20 years, Rusty has worked at many different national labs on several international research projects. His over 250 articles and other scholarly writings have been cited more than 33,000 times by peer-reviewed publications. 

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