Emerging Nuclear Fuel Cycle Technologies and their Proliferation Risks

Speaker

Technologies are emerging that have the potential to change both the outlook of nuclear power as an electricity source and the security paradigms that protect the international community from clandestine uses of nuclear technology to develop weapons. In this seminar, Katlyn Turner will discuss a few developing technologies in the areas of uranium enrichment, process & part manufacturing, and spent fuel reprocessing, and evaluate these technologies for both their 1) potential utility to change inefficiencies, costs, and waste production in the fuel cycle, and 2) the potential nuclear security and proliferation risks these technologies may pose. She will propose the development of a framework for use by the technical and security communities to evaluate these and future technological advancements to the nuclear fuel cycle.

Katlyn Turner grew up in Granger, Indiana. She earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, an M.S. in Earth & Environmental Sciences from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from Stanford University. Her dissertation examined the atomic structures of nuclear materials in extreme pressure environments. She is interested in how emerging technologies to reprocess spent nuclear fuel affect nuclear security, waste management, and the fuel cycle.