Alexandra Akins, recent undergraduate alumna & incoming doctoral student, has been selected for Feature Paper by Energies. Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. These papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers. It is Ms. Akins’ first journal paper and is based on research conducted through the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) Program at Argonne National Laboratory. It is entitled “Anomaly Detection in Liquid Sodium Cold Trap Operation with Multisensory Data Fusion Using Long Short-Term Memory Autoencoder” and is co-authored by Derek Kultgen, ANL Group Leader for the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL), and Alexander Heifetz, ANL Principal Electrical Engineer with Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) Division.

Sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFR), which use high temperature fluid near ambient pressure as coolant, are one of the most promising types of GEN IV reactors. One of the unique challenges of SFR operation is purification of high temperature liquid sodium with a cold trap to prevent corrosion and obstructing small orifices. We have developed a deep learning long short-term memory (LSTM) autoencoder for continuous monitoring of a cold trap and detection of operational anomaly.

Akins begins her graduate studies this fall 2023, staying in Dr. Xu Wu’s research group, a position started as an undergraduate student, through the NC State Nuclear Engineering Undergraduate Research Scholars Program. Alexandra is the recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). The NSF GRFP ensures the quality, vitality, and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States. It seeks to broaden participation in science and engineering of underrepresented groups, including women, minorities, persons with disabilities, and veterans. This five-year fellowship provides three years of financial support.

Alexandra has also been selected to participate in the inaugural Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Global Forum Rising Stars Workshop in Nuclear Education, Science, Technology and Policy. This program reaches within the nuclear field, adjacent disciplines, and beyond to welcome female rising stars in science, technology, education and policy into the global nuclear community. A multi-day workshop with a series of activities, including panel talks by experts and networking opportunities for the participants, is planned for September 2023.