MIT SM ‘20 Nuclear Science and Engineering student, Dakota Allen, won best in the Operations and Power category at the American Nuclear Society Student Conference 2019 held at Virginia Commonwealth University April 4th – 6th for his presentation on “Fuel Fabrication Tolerances Impact Assessment for the Low Enrichment Uranium (LEU) Conversion of the MIT Research Reactor.”
 
The ANS Student Conference covers a broad range of technical sessions in nuclear science and technology applications, detection, nonproliferation, and fusion. The conference also provides an overview of career opportunities to nuclear science and engineering students. 
 
Dakota works under the supervision of Dr. Lin-wen Hu, MIT Nuclear Reactor Lab’s Director of Research and Services, on the MIT Reactor’s LEU fuel conversion project, assisting NRL scientists Dr. Akshay Dave and Dr. Kaichao Sun. He became interested in nuclear fuel as an undergrad at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he performed simulations on different fuel types that can expand nuclear energy’s capabilities. His research on the next generation MIT Reactor fuel fabrication is also contributing to the U.S. High Performance Research Reactors fuel development. 

MITR’s fuel conversion program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Office of Material Management, and Minimization Reactor Conversion Program with Argonne National Laboratory.

Dakota Allen receiving his award