Conference Information
The organizing committee welcomes all graphite researchers
to the 24th International Nuclear Graphite Specialists Meeting (INGSM24),
hosted in Sutardja Dai Hall at University of California, Berkeley,
in Berkeley, California from September 8-13, 2024.
The 24th International Nuclear Graphite Specialists Meeting (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, matrix graphite in nuclear reactors. The meeting will include panel discussions, oral presentations, and poster presentations, covering contributions including modeling, experimental and theoretical studies.
Topical Areas
- Irradiation damage, in-pile experiments
- Oxidation
- Graphite waste, and graphite assembly and component disassembly and decommissioning
- Use of graphite in molten salt reactors
- Thermo-physical, thermo-chemical, and mechanical properties of graphite
- Microstructure and characterization
- Standards, licensing and graphite qualification
- Physisorption and chemisorption of tritium and other gases in graphite
- Innovations and experience in manufacturing and purification, component and assembly fabrication and installation, and graphite supply chain
- Functional/performance requirements for graphite components
Location
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, USA
Hosted by: The Department of Nuclear Engineering, UC Berkeley
Registration
- Early Bird Registration: through July 31, 2024.
- Registration: through August 30th, 2024
- Late and On-Site Registration: through September 13th, 2024.
Dates
September 8-13, 2024. | Schedule.
Laboratory tour options
- Kairos Power
- UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Laboratories
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Livermore National Laboratory
Accommodations and travel
- Airports
- 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
- 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
- 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.