Vaibhav Khane, MS NucE’07, MS ChE’12, PhD ChE’14, recently spent seven months working on models for a new low-enriched uranium core for Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor as part of its Advanced Short-Term Research Opportunity (ASTRO) Program. Khane used multi-physics codes to model designs to replace the reactor’s current highly enriched uranium core.

Through the ASTRO Program, ORNL investigators host recent master’s or doctoral graduates in research areas that support Department of Energy missions in the basic and applied sciences, energy, and the environment.

ASTRO participants use their ORNL research experience to complete their doctoral degrees or, if they already have their doctoral degree, to augment their expertise and experience before entering the workforce.

Muthanna Al-Dahhan, chair and professor of chemical and biochemical engineering at S&T, was Khane’s research advisor. Khane is now a process engineer at Intel Corp.