Aadit Bhatia--a junior in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma & Radiological Engineering and a member of the Socio-Technical Risk Analysis (SoTeRiA) Research Laboratory--and his student group won first place for their presentation at the Nuclear Education, Skills, and Technology (NEST) Small Modular Reactor Workshop on Fast Reactors and Fuel Cycles, hosted this summer by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD-NEA) at Argonne National Laboratory.
Bhatia and fellow NPRE undergraduate Spencer Fargusson, both of SoTeRiA, were invited to the workshop, which examined the current state of fast reactor technologies from a global perspective along with current research on the nuclear fuel cycle. The workshop aimed to give student researchers an outlook on the factors that shape fast reactor development and deployment. Presenters included Argonne researchers and academic experts, and participants came from the United States, Canada, and the European Union, facilitating connections and international collaborations.
The winning presentation, on fast reactor fuels, demonstrated the effectiveness of metallic fuel in the fast spectrum.
“Our presentation compared and contrasted fast reactor fuel types, including metallic, oxide, nitride, carbide, and liquid salt. I focused heavily on the associated safeguards as a means to reduce the risk of proliferation,” Bhatia said. “Being able to work amongst talented researchers with unique experiences that I could learn from was incredibly meaningful.”
Fargusson, a senior, drew on this and previous NEST workshops to present with his group on the challenges and opportunities of deploying fast reactors in the United States, focusing on fast reactor safety, regulation, and waste management.
“Even though I have a focus on risk assessment, I still find it important through workshops like these to become acquainted with other facets of nuclear engineering to augment and improve what I do now,” Fargusson said.
Both students returned to the SoTeRiA Research Laboratory this fall. Fargusson continues on an NSF-sponsored project analyzing socio-technical risk factors in AI-driven technologies used in nuclear power plants. Bhatia, who joined the laboratory in Spring 2025, works on coupling Physics of Failure (PoF) with maintenance performance to support simulation-informed dependency treatment for nuclear plants, and on common cause failure modeling for advanced reactors. In Summer 2026, he was a risk engineering intern for boiling water reactors at Entergy, working on 10 CFR 50.69, the regulation that allows plants to categorize equipment by safety significance using risk-informed safety classes. He received the Rising Undergraduate Research Award in Spring 2026 for his work with SoTeRiA, and he became a NEST Fellow through his participation in the workshop.
“NEST workshops give our students the chance to work alongside international peers, national laboratory researchers, and industry experts on the questions that shape advanced reactor deployment, and to see how the risk analysis they do at SoTeRiA fits into that larger effort,” said SoTeRiA director and NPRE Professor Zahra Mohaghegh. “Experiences like these are how we prepare the next generation of the nuclear workforce, and Spencer and Aadit represented Illinois very well.”