Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) conducted an exercise to evaluate how nuclear engineering students could use National Nuclear Data Center (NNDC) databases to solve problems designed to challenge both undergraduate and graduate students. Six teams from three universities – NC State, Texas A&M, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) – volunteered to participate in the exercise.

The teams were composed of two to five students each. BNL posed five questions to the student teams, covering reactor operations monitoring, control, isotope production, spent nuclear fuel, and thorium reactors. The teams selected which two of the five problems they would solve and submitted a short report and poster presentation summarizing their solutions.

Participating students each received a $200 honorarium upon submitting their report. BNL also offered an award of $1,000 to the team submitting the best paper in the Undergraduate Division and the Undergraduate/Graduate Division. The exercise was organized and led by Susan Pepper, chair of the Nonproliferation and National Security Department at BNL and ran from April 1 to July 31, 2022.

On August 19, BNL announced the winners: the Undergraduate Division winner was one of the NC State teams – Ryan Charrette, James Krec, and Matt Nash (left to right). The Undergraduate/Graduate Division winner was the RPI team – Adeline Hervey and Peter Brain. Congratulations to the winners of this challenging competition!