Former Fellows-Now Staff

Jordan Stomps

Jordan earned a doctoral degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying nuclear engineering under Paul Wilson. He began his internship at ORNL in May 2022 to develop and expand his doctoral research. His research is supported by the NNSA Consortium for Enabling Technology and Innovation (ETI) under the Research Thrust Area for Computer and Engineering Sciences for Nonproliferation. His doctoral research utilizes data collected under the NNSA NA-22 MINOS project in collaborations with ORNL research scientists (Jared Johnson venture lead; Ken Dayman team lead).

Jordan’s research focuses on leveraging large volumes of radiation-detection data (i.e. gamma-rays) that have limited attribution. In real-world scenarios, the high cost of limited contextual and ground truth information can make labeling sufficient data prohibitive. Using semi-supervised machine learning techniques, Jordan is designing methods that can increase the amount of high value, interpretable, and actionable information relevant to a range of nonproliferation missions. This ultimately leads to more informed decisions and resource efficiency based on nuclear monitoring.

By working with ORNL researchers, Jordan has been able to align his research with impactful applications to help further NNSA’s nonproliferation objectives. In addition to having a network of expertise on nuclear nonproliferation, Jordan’s research is also being supported by ORNL’s scientific and computing resources which are critical tools for research in machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. Jordan hopes to complete his PhD while at ORNL; and hopes to use this experience to build a career in nuclear nonproliferation research.

Matthew Krupcale

Former Consortium Fellow at University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (PhD in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences and Scientific Computing; ORNL Post-Doc).

I entered the world of nuclear engineering and nuclear nonproliferation as a Consortium for Verification Technology (CVT) graduate student fellow at the University of Michigan. During my time there, I was studying the atmospheric transport modeling (ATM) of radionuclides for treaty verification purposes, primarily focused on radioxenon emissions from weapons tests. My participation as a fellow provided the funding for my graduate research, allowing me to participate in summer internships at PNNL and LLNL as well as make presentations or posters at the CVT Workshops and at the DNN sponsored University and Industry Technical Interchange (UITI)/University Progress Review (UPR) meetings. This led to ORNL expressing interest in my work, which ultimately resulted in my postdoctoral research position in the Detonation Forensics and Response (DFR) group. Under this postdoctoral position, I became very familiar with the ATM implemented in the operational nuclear fallout modeling code DELFIC and wrote a detailed report on its Diffusive Transport Module (DTM) component. Furthermore, I reimplemented precipitation scavenging into the modern version of DELFIC based on the original Precipitation Scavenging Module (PSM) and wrote a report on this effort.

Aside from these primary efforts funded by my postdoctoral position, I had the opportunity to contribute to projects targeted towards improving nuclear forensics modeling fidelity and timeliness. Over the course of my postdoctoral position, I was able to present on these various projects at different venues from public conferences such as the George Mason University (GMU) Conference on Atmospheric Dispersion Transport Modeling to review meetings such as Nuclear Explosions Monitoring and the Post Detonation Rapid Response Venture Meeting as well as training courses at the Air Force Institute of Technology. Finally, I had the chance to take some professional development courses including the SCALE/TRITON and SCALE/ORIGEN as well as HYSPLIT code training courses. Altogether, this postdoctoral work has greatly improved my knowledge and experience in the field of nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear forensics in particular. I have now received and accepted an offer for a staff position within the DFR group, where I will continue the great work we are doing here at ORNL in support of the Department of Energy mission.

Patrick Snarr

I am Patrick Snarr.  I am a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin). I received my MS from UT-Austin in 2021 in mechanical engineering, and my BS from Wright State University in 2018 also in mechanical engineering.

I am currently a staff engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the Advanced Fuel Fabrication and Instrumentation group. My graduate research is supported jointly by ORNL and the Consortium for Enabling Technology and Innovation (ETI) which is funded by the NNSA.

My research is focused on additive manufacturing (AM) technologies that have the potential to impact the nuclear fuel cycle as well as nuclear non-proliferation strategies.  I have conducted research and industry experience in ceramic, metal, and polymer AM.  My dissertation research focuses on multi-oxide additive manufacturing for advanced fuel concepts.  I also work on new material development for AM techniques and process development for existing methods.