![]() In 2017, Stevenson took her MPFD research to France, where she studied miniature fission chambers in a reactor operated by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). “The NSUF internship taught me about DOE-NE’s R&D objectives and capabilities and how, as an aspiring research scientist, I may align my career with their mission needs.” “The support I received from NSUF as an INL intern was pivotal for my nuclear engineering career,” she said. She was one of 25 students, graduates and undergraduates selected for the two-week program. “And the networking – at INL, I felt like I was at a conference every day.” During her internship, which was funded by the NSUF, Stevenson met people from the international nuclear community at NSUF’s User Week, and at the end of the summer, she attended Nuclear Innovation Bootcamp at Berkeley. “It helped me gain a more high-level view of nuclear energy,” she said. Coming to INL to work on a team developing an in-core neutron sensor known as the Micro-Pocket Fission Detector (MPFD) was total immersion. The more she learned, the more she became convinced nuclear energy offers a clean solution for baseload energy generation. “I wanted to find the truth.” Sarah Stevenson stands over the pool at the Kansas State University TRIGA reactor. “I’ve always been one to take on challenges,” she said. Not long after, she started working at the KSU TRIGA, and has since earned her reactor operator and senior reactor operator licenses from the U.S. Her first summer, she went to work in the school’s Semiconductor Materials and Radiological Technologies Laboratory in addition to pursuing more conventional research into heat transfer. Her interest in nuclear was piqued when she learned the school had a TRIGA Mark II reactor. Stevenson had chosen mechanical engineering for her major because it offered a wide choice of options. Overall, it has been a sharp trajectory for a first-generation college student who says she didn’t know much about nuclear energy or materials when she enrolled at KSU. is in hand, she will become a physicist/nuclear engineer for the Air Force. The plan is for Stevenson, 22, to commission in the Air Force, using an “education delay” to postpone entry to extended active duty while she studies at Berkeley. UCB joined the Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) network in 2011. This will help her pursue a doctorate studying nuclear materials at UCB’s Nuclear Engineering Department. This comes from being an ROTC cadet for five years, but Stevenson learned in March she had received a Chancellor’s Fellowship from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB). When she graduates from Kansas State University in May, Stevenson, who spent the summer of 2016 as an intern at Idaho National Laboratory, will have a commission in the U.S. Additionally, NEAT-affiliated researchers will become a local (or future hiring) investment for organizations needing qualified and highly relevant skills to their organizations.Uncle Sam may have to wait a few years for Sarah Stevenson, but it’s a solid bet the wait will be worth it. Human capital development will occur through graduate student engagement on projects, for which the NEAT CSR will be able to strategically link to long-term needs of customers. In education, the NEAT will seek to provide the nuclear knowledge and expertise to educational initiatives at all levels, allowing graduate education and continuing education to focus on their specific areas, with the NEAT available to provide relevant inserts as needed. To do this, the NEAT will engage in and conduct research with other specialized AFIT centers, USAF organizations, DoD services, government agencies (e.g., NNSA), industry, and universities, in a strategic and sustained way. The objective of the research is to tie together the disparate technological areas and disciplines to be at the cutting-edge of present and future technologies. The NEAT CSR was established within the AFIT graduate school with three primary functions: research, education, and publications focused on human capital development.
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