Nuclear energy expert to give FORNL lecture on Tuesday

Andrew Worrall, deputy director of Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) and section head at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will present “Why Nuclear and Why Now?” on Tuesday, July 13, at noon to Friends of ORNL.

The lecture is open to the public. To view the virtual lecture, click on the talk title on the homepage of the www.fornl.org website and click on the Zoom link on the page describing the lecture, a press release said.

Today, nuclear energy in the United States produces approximately 20 percent of the nation’s electricity demand, the press release said. According to Worrall, “It is the largest producer of our nation’s emission-free electricity, yet is often misunderstood and misrepresented.”

In his presentation, Worrall will highlight some of the “pros and cons” of nuclear energy. Then he will explain why an expansion in nuclear energy is required not just for the United States but also around the world as the earth’s surface temperature continues to rise in response to increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Worrall is head of the Integrated Fuel Cycle Section in ORNL’s Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division. He has more than 27 years of professional experience in nuclear fields in the United Kingdom and the United States, the press release said. Worrall has worked on and led multi-disciplinary and multi-national projects in reactor physics, fuel and core design, plutonium disposition, fuel development, and fuel cycle strategy (technical, economics, and safeguards).

He received his bachelor’s degree in physics from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom in 1992 and his master’s degree in the physics and technology of nuclear reactors from the University of Birmingham, UK, in 1993. In 2012, he joined ORNL. In December 2014, the U.S. Department of Energy appointed Worrall as the laboratory lead coordinator for nuclear energy research programs with the UK, the press release said.

GAIN is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy initiative that connects industry with DOE’s national laboratories to accelerate the development and commercialization of advanced nuclear technologies.

Worrall is a chartered physicist (CPhys), a fellow of the Institute of Physics and formerly a Royal Academy of Engineering Professor of Nuclear Engineering in the UK. In January 2021. As part of a multi-laboratory project, he was awarded the U.S. Secretary of Energy’s Achievement Award for addressing a grand challenge in the safeguarding of nuclear material: characterizing commercial spent fuel assemblies.