Thank you

Dear colleagues,

Thank you for having participated in the 24th International Nuclear Graphite Specialists Meeting (INGSM24). The INGSM24 conference was hosted by the SALT Group in the Nuclear Engineering Department at University of California Berkeley, with sponsorship by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy.

INGSM24 included 4 opening talks giving overviews of Chinese, UK, US, and regulatory activities, 4 panel discussions (graphite manufacturing and supply chain, standards 1, standards 2, reactor vendors), 12 technical sessions, 4 poster sessions, two student awards, one early career mentoring event, laboratory tours of UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering and Kairos Power, an evening reception that was also attended by Tim Burchell (editor of the “Carbon Materials for Advanced Technologies” book), and an evening banquet at which we announced the best student poster award. All in all, it included 50 hours of conference time, and it was attended by 100 participants from 9 countries, representing industry, regulators, national labs, and universities, among which 15 were students. We also hosted two side research meetings, organized by the participants. Student and early career events were sponsored by the American Carbon Society.

The student competition was organized by Lorenzo Vergari (UIUC) with all members of the Organizing Committee as jury.

• The best student poster award was awarded to Ellen Berry from Johns Hopkins University (Sonic Resonance Measurements of Elastic Modulus using Laser-Based Methods). The evaluation criteria were research impact, methodology and interpretation.
• The best student talk award was awarded to Liam Hines from MIT (Waste Characterization and Decommissioning Cost Quantification for Gen IV Graphite Reflector Components). The evaluation criteria were research impact, methodology and interpretation.

Here are some of the photos from the INGSM24 conference.
Thank you for uploading more of your photos here (the drop link works for both phone and computer platforms), and thank you for filling out the feedback form for INGSM24.

Raluca O. Scarlat, on behalf of the The INGSM-24 Organizing Committee

Welcome

On behalf of the United States Department of Energy and the American Carbon Society, we are delighted to welcome you to the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley). This year, the Department of Nuclear Engineering at University of California Berkeley has the honor of hosting the 24^th International Nuclear Graphite Specialists Meeting (INGSM-24), the annual international meeting on nuclear graphite and carbon materials for use in nuclear reactor applications. INGSM is hosted every year in a different country, and INGSM-24 was preceded by INGSM-23, which was hosted in Aachen, Germany.

INGSM-24 is inviting researchers, industry experts and early career scientists and engineers to join in discussion about ongoing research, challenges, and future directions for the use of graphite and related materials, such as carbon-carbon composites and matrix graphite, in nuclear reactors. The meeting includes panel discussions, oral presentations, and poster presentations,  with modeling, experimental and theoretical studies on the topic areas of

1. Irradiation damage, in-pile experiments
2. Oxidation
3. Graphite waste, and graphite assembly and component disassembly and decommissioning
4. Use of graphite in molten salt reactors
5. Thermo-physical, thermo-chemical, and mechanical properties of graphite
6. Microstructure and characterization
7. Standards, licensing and graphite qualification
8. Physisorption and chemisorption of tritium and other gases in graphite
9. Innovations and experience in manufacturing and purification, component and assembly fabrication and installation, and graphite supply chain
10. Functional/performance requirements for graphite components

The development of advanced nuclear reactors that employ graphite with gas coolants or salt coolants is driven by the global need for decarbonization, energy security, climate adaptation, environmental justice, growing and diversifying energy markets, and aerospace applications. Driven by these grand challenges that society faces today and that nuclear reactors can help address, the field of nuclear graphite is necessarily a growing field. We hope that INGSM is an opportunity to continue to build upon existing collaborations and decades of expertise, establish new connections, create new mentorship opportunities and engage new scholars in this field.

Berkeley sits in the territory of xučyun (Huichin), the original landscape of the Chochenyo speaking Ohlone people, the successors of the sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County. This region continues to be of great importance to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and other familial descendants of the Verona Band. We recognize that every member of the Berkeley community has, and continues to benefit from, the use and occupation of this land, since the institution’s founding in 1868. Consistent with our values of community, inclusion and diversity, we have a responsibility to not only recognize the history of the land on which we stand, but also, we recognize that the Muwekma Ohlone people are alive and flourishing members of the Berkeley and broader Bay Area communities today. Founded in 1868, UC Berkeley hosted its first female students in 1870. During Free Speech Movement that begun in 1964, students protest led to the university overturning policies that would restrict the content of speech or advocacy and today stands as a symbol of protecting and preserving free speech and academic freedom. The University of California’s Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Initiative was launched in 2018. In April 2023, UC Berkeley was designated by the US Department of Education as an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI), reflecting our institutional commitment to deepening our capacity to serve AA & PI student communities as part of our broader commitment to serving all students on our campus.

The Nobel Prize in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, economics and literature, has been awarded to 26 UC Berkeley faculty and 35 UC Berkeley alumni, with the first being Ernst Lawrence in 1939 for his work on the cyclotron. Using the cyclotron, professors at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab discovered 16 new elements, among which Americium, Californium, Berkelium, Plutonium, Technicium, Neptunium, Curium, Lawrentium, Seaborgium. Chancellor Glenn Seaborg founded the Nuclear Engineering Department at Berkeley in 1958 and Thomas Pigford was appointed the first department chair in 1959, and then appointed to serve on the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. From its foundation to today, the Nuclear Engineering Department has continued to be a leader in envisioning and developing the next generation of nuclear reactors and advanced fuel cycles.

We are delighted to host INGSM-24 on the UC Berkeley campus,
and we wish everyone a productive and inspiring conference,

The INGSM-24 Organizing Committee

Location

Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, USA
Hosted by: The SALT Research Group in The Department of Nuclear Engineering, UC Berkeley

(also see Program)

Accommodations and travel

• Airports

  • tlr: fly into SFO or OAK.
  • San Francisco: SFO is a lovely airport to fly into – with artwork and even a small aviation tech/history museum (a replica of the first SFO terminal and some of the first propellers for commercial flights on display) and a library. It has a good selection of food and shops, and a fully automated barrista robot (that tends to get a good amount of attention) and makes reasonably good matcha and coffee lattes. The international terminal has rotating museum exhibits distributed around the terminal. There are also a yoga room in Terminal 3 – you can just walk in, no need to reserve. There is filtered water available for free, to refill your water bottle – San Francisco gets its water all the way from the mountains, from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, in Yosemite National Park.  It is one hour away from the UC Berkeley campus, by public transportation (BART, Red Line). When there is no traffic (there is always traffic!), it is 28 minute by car to the Berkeley campus; otherwise it is anywhere between 1 and 2 hours by car, in traffic; google maps includes live traffic.
  • Oakland: OAK is a smaller airport, a bit closer to the Berkeley campus. It is one hour away from the UC Berkeley campus, by public transportation (BART, Orange Line). When there is no traffic (there is always traffic!), it is 28 minute by car to the Berkeley campus; otherwise it is anywhere between 1 and 2 hours by car, in traffic; google maps includes live traffic.
  • San Jose: SJC is located in the South Bay/Sillicon Valley. It is a smaller airport. It is under two hours away from the UC Berkeley campus, by public transportation (BART, Orange Line, $7 and a $25 (estimate) ride on Uber or Lyft from the SJC airport to the Milpitas BART Station). When there is no traffic (there is always traffic!!!!!), it is 50 minutes by car to the Berkeley campus; otherwise it is anywhere between 2 and 3 hours by car, in traffic; google maps includes live traffic.
  • Sacramento: SAC is located North-East of the Bay Area, in the State Capital. It is two hours away from the UC Berkeley campus, by public transportation: Amtrak Train from Sacramento Berkeley $29, a $30 (estimate) ride on Uber or Lyft from the SAC airport to the Sacramento Amtrak Station, and a $20 (estimate) ride from the Berkeley Amtrak Station to the Sutardja Dai Hall on the Berkeley campus. When there is no traffic, it is 90 minutes by car to the Berkeley campus; google maps includes live traffic.

• Local Transportation

  • tltr: get a Clipper card, use Bart, use campus shuttles. Use Uber or Lyft. Walk. Avoid driving, traffic is no fun.
  • The UC Berkeley campus is easily accessible by public transportation from the SFO and OAK airports, and from the cities of Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. Google maps is a good tool to use for public transportation directions, with real-time arrival information, and The Clipper card (on your phone/watch or plastic card) will work on all public transportation modes in the entire Bay Area. Travel times on the BART Red line are 10 minutes from Downtown Berkeley to Oakland City Center, 25 minutes from Downtown Berkeley to Downtown San Francisco, one hour from OAK and SFO.
  • BART is the public transportation line that connects Berkeley and the San Francisco (SFO) and Oakland (OAK) airports. You can buy a Clipper Card at the airport, which can be used for all public transportation in Berkeley, San Francisco, Oakland and the greater Bay Area (including trains, ferries, and buses); the Clipper Card costs $3 and can be bought as an app on your phone or smart watch, or it can also be bought as a physical card , at any of the BART stations; you can then add money to your card, which is used to pay the fare on all bay area public transportation, by bus, rail, or water. The trip from the airport to the UC Berkeley campus is $12 one way, and takes about an hour from SFO or from OAK; both airports have their respective airport train shuttles that connect directly to the airport BART station. The Bart Line that reaches Berkeley is the Red Line, in the Richmond direction; the stop is Downtown Berkeley BART Station. From the Downtown Berkeley BART station, the Mariott hotel is immediately adjacent, and so the UC Berkeley campus. The conference venue on the UC Berkeley campus is Sutardja Dai Hall, a 10-minute walk from the BART station and the Mariott hotel.
  • The Perimeter UC Berkeley Bus Shuttle connects between Downtown Berkeley (Stop 1) and Sutardja Dai Hall (Stop 5), but it only runs only every 30 minutes.
  • A taxi from the airport to the UC Berkeley campus will be on the order of $100+; An Uber of Lyft from the airport to the UC Berkeley campus will be on the order of $60+. An Uber of Lyft from Downtown Berkeley BART to Sutardja Dai Hall is on the order of $10. Public transportation (buses, trains, ferries) is wheelchair accessible. Uber gives you the option to order wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAV), or drivers that will provide assistance (Uber Assist).
  • Apps for car rides include Lyft, Uber; within San Francisco, you can ride self-driving Waymo car rides; these apps allow you to schedule your rides ahead of time, or request a ride immediately. Taxis can be found at the airport, and they are otherwise rare to find and hail on city streets, so you would need to call a taxi company to schedule a ride; for example, Yellow Cab of Berkeley: (510) 528-9999.
• Hotels
  • tltr: lots of options in Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco. Use Bart to Downtown Berkeley station. 
  • Hotel accommodations within walking distance of the Berkeley campus are many. Google maps is a good tool for searching hotel options in the vicinity of Sutardja Dai Hall: Residence Inn by Mariott, Hotel Shattuck Plaza, Berkeley City Club, Nash Hotel are all adjancent to campus and are less than one mile (1.6 km) of Sutardja Dai Hall, 15 minutes of walking through the beautiful UC Berkeley campus.
  • Hotel accommodations within walking distance of Bart Stations in San Francisco give you a wide range of costs and experiences, giving you a chance to enjoy downtown San Francisco, though requiring that you commute 25 minutes on the BART train to the Downtown Berkeley station, from where you can walk to Sutardja Dai Hall by crossing the beautiful UC Berkeley campus, about a 15 minute walk, take a campus shuttle, or hail a ride. SF Hotels close to bart stations: Hyatt Regency is very close to Ferry Building at the very beginning of Market Street, W  is close to the Modern Art Museum (MOMA) and the Yerba Buena Gardens and Jewish Art Museum and the rooms have fantastic views of the city, and many other options within a few minutes from the Embarcadero, Montgomery and Powell BART stations in Downtown San Francisco.
• Once you’re here: see Presenter and Attendee Information