SEMINARS & INVITED LECTURES:

 

Progress meeting on the development of UN fuel, Nov. 18-19, 2024, Westinghouse, Pittsburgh,

DFT Studies of Electronic Properties and Effect of He and Xe Incorporation in UN and Other, Selected Metallic Fuels. invited

International Experts Summit on Renewable and Sustainable Energy (IESRSE2024), August 05-07, 2024, Lugano, Switzerland, moved to September 17-18, online, Szpunar B., DFT evaluation of selected metallic fuels to enhance safety of nuclear reactors , invited.

COSIRES 2024,The 16th Conference of COmputer Simulation of IRradiation Effects in Solids, Kingstone, June 16-21, 2024, Szpunar B, Ranasinghe J.I., Szpunar J.A, DFT studies of selected metallic fuels: from electronic properties to swelling.

CNS, 43rd Annual Conference from June 16 to 19, 2024, Saskatoon, Ranasinghe J.I., Szpunar B., Szpunar J.A., Thermal conductivity of molybdenum and molybdenum-doped U3O8  fuels

Materials Modelling and Simulation for Nuclear Fuels (MMSNF) Workshop, Hamilton, Nov. 28-30, 2023, ., Szpunar J.A,  Ranasinghe J.I., Szpunar B., Novel Microstructural Design of Nuclear Fuels for Future Gen IV and Small Modular Reactors

The 21st International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems – Water Reactors, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, August 6-10, 2023, Ranasinghe J.I., Szpunar B., Szpunar J.A., Urania fuel degradation to U3O8 and point defects and fission products studies.

11th International Conference on Isotopes (11ICI), July 23-27, Saskatoon, Canada, 2023, Szpunar B., Accident Tolerant Nuclear Fuels and Isotopes' Usage (Invited)

UN Summer Meeting, Organised by Westiinghouse, July 20-26, 2023 Online, Szpunar B., First-principles investigation of the electronic-thermal transport of ThN, UN and ThC (Invited)

TopFuel2023, 18-21 July 2023, Xi’an, China , Szpunar B.,THN’s LATTICE-ASSISTED THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY REVISITED.

2023 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition, San Diego, March 19-23 (2023), Symposium: Seaborg Institutes: Emerging Topics in Actinide Materials and Science, Szpunar B., Ranasinghe J.I.,  Szpunar J.A.,, Comparison of the electronic transport of UN and ThN versus ThC.

PEP Research Informa0on Session & Student-Faculty Mixer – Tuesday November 29, 2022: Advanced Materials for SMRs

Departmental Physics and Engineering Physics Seminar, USASK, 2022, September 20, Saskatoon, Enhanced Accident Tolerant Nuclear Fuels and Small Modular Reactor for Saskatchewan.

The CNS’s 15th International Conference on CANDU Fuel, 2022, August 21-24, Ajax,  Canada, SMR, Canadian, T6-2, DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ELECTRONIC PROPERTIES OF UN, THN, AND THC.

The International Chemical Congress of  Pacific Basin Societies, Honolulu, 2021, December 16-21, Frontiers in Actinide Chemistry: From Fundamental Systems to Practical Applications, ThN versus ThC comparison.

EPW Virtual Summer School 2021, June 14-18, Szpunar B., First principles investigation of thermal transport of uranium mononitride., poster.

The 6th Nuclear Materials Conference 26-30 October 2020 , Online Event, Szpunar B., Ranasinghe J.I.,  Malakkal L.,  Szpunar J.A., 2020, First principles investigation of thermal transport of uranium mononitride., poster.

2020 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition, San Diego, February 25 (2020), Symposium: Thermal Transport in Crystalline and Non-crystalline Solids: Theory and Experiments, Session: Electron Mediated Transport and Thermoelectrics, Szpunar B., Malakkal L.,  Ranasinghe J.I.,  Szpunar J.A.,, Investigations of the thermal conductivity of UN, (invited).

PRISM, Int. Conf. on Materials Science and Engineering, September 16-18, 2019. Pullman Melbourne Albert Park, Australia, CONNECTING WOMEN IN MATERIALS SCIENCE THROUGH MATERIALS OCEANIA CONFERENCE, COMPARISON OF STRUCTURAL STABILITY OF β SILCON CARBIDE AND THORIA (invited)

14th International Conference on CANDU Fuel, “Powering a Greener Future with Advanced Fuel Cycles”, Hilton Meadowvale, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada 2019 July 21-24, Structural Stability of SiC.

APE’19: International Conference on Innovative Applied Energy, Oxford, UK, March 14-15, 2019, Application of State-of-the-Art Calculations in Design of Accident Tolerant Fuel for Safe Nuclear Energy (keynote).

Joint TOPATF-EGATFL Meeting, OECD/NEA Headquarters, 46, Quai Alphonse Le Gallo, Boulogne-Billancourt, 4 March 2019, Exploring Enhanced Safety of Nuclear Reactors via Experiential Learning about ATF.

2018-Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit &Exhibition, 4th Intl. Symposium on New and Advanced Materials and Technologies in Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development, 4-7 Nov., 2018, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Application of State-of-the-Art Calculations in Design of  Accident Tolerant Nuclear Materials (keynote).

8th International Conference on Simulation Methods in Nuclear Science and Engineering, October 9-11, 2018, Ottawa, Canada, ENHANCED ACCIDENT TOLERANCE OF THORIA-BASED NUCLEAR FUELS.

38th Annual Conference of the Canadian Nuclear Society, Saskatoon, Canada, June 3-6, 2018, MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THORIA, URANIA AND THEIR MIXTURE.

The EMN Meeting on Computation and Theory, November 6-10, 2017, Dubai, Application of Density Functional Theory in designing accident tolerant nuclear fuels, (invited). 

Workshop on Accident Tolerant Nuclear Fuel, University of Saskatchewan, October 1st, 2017, Thoria and other alternatives to urania. New course  about ATF, (co-organiser)

Los Alamos. August 4th, 2017, Application of Density Functional Theory in designing accident tolerant nuclear fuels.

The International Conference on Composite Material, Polymer Science and Engineering, June 24-25, 2017, Toyama, Japan, ACCIDENT TOLERANT COMPOSITE NUCLEAR FUELS,  (invited, plenary)

Materials for Nuclear Energy, 2017 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition, San Diego,  March 2 (2017) First Principles Investigations of Alternative Nuclear Fuels.

EMN Meeting on texture and microstructure, Hong Kong, December 18 to 22 (2016) The effect of texture and temperature on Young’s and share moduli of thoria.(invited).

City University, Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, Hong Kong, December 16th (2016) Multidisciplinary Reactor Safety Analysis and Accident Tolerant Nuclear Fuels.

13th International Conference on CANDU Fuel, Kingston, August 15-18 (2016), First Principles Studies of Thermal Conductivity of Nuclear Fuel Materials.

The fifth annual Women in Physics Canada (WIPC) conference, Canada, Saskatoon, July 27-29, 2016 at the University of Saskatchewan, Women In Nuclear:Why are there so few?, note Maria Curie Sklodowska named most influential women in history by BBC (invited).

Joint UOIT-IAEA Course on Science and Technology of Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactors , UOIT, 2016, July 6th, Session VIII: Nuclear Fuels, Multiscale Simulations of Accident Tolerant Nuclear Fuel (Lecture is included as a pdf file, invited).

36th Annual Conference of the Canadian Nuclear Society, Toronto, Canada, W3B, June 19-22 (2016), First Principles Molecular Dynamics Studies of Oxygen Sub-Lattice Melting in Thoria.

Meeting at CANDU Energy Inc., Mississauga, June 21st, 2016, Multi-scale Simulations of Accident Tolerant Nuclear Fuel.

The 2015 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (Pacifichem), Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, December 15-20 (2015) Conf. Proc., Symposium on Experimental and Theoretical Actinide Chemistry: From Fundamental Systems to Practical Applications (#42) [4A], Theoretical investigation of λ-type pre-melting transition in thoria.

The 2015 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (Pacifichem), Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, December 15-20 (2015) Conf. Proc., Symposium on Isotope Production - Providing Important Materials for Research and Applications (#363) [1A], Production of medical isotopes by photo-neutron reaction.

14th International Conference on Clean Energy 2015, September 27th – October 1st, 2015, Saskatoon,  Canada, Safer Nuclear Reactors with Enhanced Thermal Conductivity for Clean Energy

University of Saskatchewan, Computational Workshop, August 31st, 2015, Multi-scale Simulations. (organizer).

3rd International Conference on Manufacturing Engineering and Technology for Manufacturing Growth, August 1-2, 2015, in Vancouver, Canada, Multi-scale Simulation of Thoria-SiC Composites.

3rd World Congress on Integrated Computational Materials Engineering, TMS, May 31st-June 4th, 2015, Colorado Springs, An Interface to Quantum ESPRESSO.

University of Saskatchewan, Int. Workshop of Laser Compton Scattering Gamma Rays at Electron Storage Rings, November 7-11, 2014, http://physics.usask.ca/~physdept/LCS2014/archives/index.html, Estimate of Production of Medical Isotopes and Transmutation of Nuclear Waste by Photo-Neutron Reaction at the Canadian Light Source (invited).

3rd NuMat Meeting, Clearwater Beach, Florida, October 27-30, 2014, Thermo-mechanical properties of thoria:
A density functional studies.
http://www.nuclearmaterialsconference.com/conference-venue.html,

Department of Physics & Engineering Physics, University of Saskatchewan , 7th October,  2014, University of Saskatchewan, http://physics.usask.ca/~physdept/seminars/october7th.pdf, Nuclear Reactor Safety and Accident Tolerant Fuel (invited). 

19th Pacific Basin Nuclear Conference, Vancouver, 24-28th August, 2014, Thoria versus urania comparison.

Materials, Methods & Technologies, 16th Int. Conf., Elenite Holiday Village, Bulgaria, 11–15 June 2014, Thermal conductivity in improvement of safety of nuclear fuel.

26th Canadian Materials Science Conference, University of Saskatchewan, 1-4 June 2014, Evaluation of High Temperature Properties of Thoria from First Principles.

Elenite Holiday Village, BulgariaUniversity of Saskatchewan, Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Saskatoon, September 19, 2013,

A Multidisciplinary Look at the Safety of Nuclear Reactor.

1st Annual International Conference on Physics & Chemistry, 22-25 July 2013, Athens, Greece (invited),

Multidisciplinary Reactor Safety Studies: Application of First Principles Calculation.

University of Saskatchewan, the 24th Canadian Congress of Applied Mechanics, June 2-6, 2013,

Application of Density Functional Theory in Assessing Elastic Properties of Thoria.

University of Saskatchewan, LCS@CLS workshop, January 18&19, 2013, http://physics.usask.ca/~physdept/lcscls/ (invited),

Simulations of Transmutations Induced by a Beamline at the Canadian Light Source in Conjunction with a CO2 Laser System.

University of Saskatchewan, Symposium in memory of Dr. Sylvia Fedoruk: Innovation in Nuclear Medicine in Saskatchewan, January 15, 2013, http://pegasusask.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/SF_symposium_jan15_13.pdf

Conventional and alternative methods for production of medical isotopes explored by simulations.

University of Saskatchewan, Hitachi Japan SMR, Saskatoon, December 6th, 2012,

Multi-scale Modeling of Materials Characteristics for Performance and Advancement in Research on Medical Isotopes

The second FLUKA advanced course and workshop, Triumf, Vancouver, September 15-20, 2012, http://www.fluka.org/fluka.php?id=course&sub=program&navig=2&which=triumf2012,

A Simple Estimate of Production of Medical Isotopes by Photo-Neutron Reaction at the Canadian Light Source.

  33rd Annual Conference of the Canadian Nuclear Society, Saskatoon, Canada, 3A/138, June 10-13, 2012,

A Simple Estimate of Production of Medical isotopes by Photo-neutron Reaction at the Canadian Light Source

  33rd Annual Conference of the Canadian Nuclear Society, Saskatoon, Canada, 2D/131, June 10-13, 2012,

Properties of Recycled Fuels; Density Functional Theory Study

  Canada - India Symposium on Materials for Clean Energy

January 22-25, 2012, Saskatoon (invited),

Ceria versus urania; first principles calculation.

  Polish-Canadian Scientific Society of Saskatoon, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, April 5, 2011,

Transmutations - medical isotopes and nuclear waste.

  International Conference on ADVANCES IN NUCLEAR MATERIALS (ANM-2011) February 9-11, 2011, Mumbai, India,

The Application of Density Functional Theory in Assessing Properties of Thoria and Recycled Fuels.

  1st ISTP GITA Indo-Canadian Workshop, Goa, India, January 14-16, 2011 (invited),

An AB INITIO Study of Properties of Nuclear Materials.

  The 2010 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (Pacifichem), Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, December 15-20, 2010,

Alternative solution for treatment of long-lived radioactive isotope sin nuclear waste

  University of Saskatchewan, Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Saskatoon, September 9, 2010,

Simulation of photon-nuclear interaction in production of medical isotopes and transmutation of nuclear waste.

GEH, Wilmington, NC, October 21st, 2010,

Current activities in fundamental simulations of the interaction and transport of particles in matter and modeling of properties of nuclear materials.

The first FLUKA advanced course and workshop, Ericeira, Portugal, October 4-8, 2010, http://www.fluka.org/fluka.php?id=course&sub=program&navig=2&which=portugal2010,

Simulation of photon-nuclear interaction in production of medical isotopes and transmutation of nuclear waste.

11th International Conference on CANDU Fuel, Niagara Falls, Canada, October 17-20, 2010,

Structural and Mechanical Properties of Urania Oxidized to U3O8.

  3rd International Conference on Uranium, 40th Annual Hydrometallurgy Meeting, Uranium, Saskatoon, Canada, August 15-18, 2010,

Theoretical Investigation of Structural and Mechanical Properties of Uranium Oxides.

  The 4th Yamada Symposium on Advanced Photons and Science Evolution 2010, June 14-18, 2010, Osaka Japan, XV (invited),

 Simulation of photon-nuclear interaction in production of medical isotopes and transmutation of nuclear waste (Listed on http://www.yamadazaidan.jp/ys/apse2010 as: The present and perspectives of CLS and nuclear transmutation).

  31st Annual Conference of the Canadian Nuclear Society, Montreal, Canada, T16, May 24-27, 2010,

Photo Production of Isotopes for Medical and Industrial Usages.

  Canadian Light Source (CLS) Saskatoon, Canada, April 21-23, 2010, invited talk at Laser Electron Scatter Photons at Light Sources for Nuclear & Allied Research Workshop

 Monte Carlo simulations of artificial transmutation for nuclear waste management, medical isotope production and photo fission.      

  University of Saskatchewan, Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Saskatoon, November 12, 2009,

Multi-scale nuclear fuel modeling.

  30th Annual Conference of the Canadian Nuclear Society,  Calgary, Canada, T3,  May 31 - June 3, 2009, The Crystal structure and Elastic Properties of Pure and Dy Doped Urania

  30th Annual Conference of the Canadian Nuclear Society, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T3, May 31 - June 3, 2009, Onset of the Local Magnetic Moment on Nb in Zirconia.

  Queen's University, Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Kingston, February 17, 2009,

 Small scale CANDU fuel modeling.

 10th International Conference on CANDU Fuel, Ottawa, October 5-8, 2008, Fuel oxidation in steam-rich gas mixtures.

   SP, AECL, Meeting on Fuel Oxidation in Advanced CANDU Reactors, June 16, 2008,

FOXSIMF 3.6.2.

   F*A*C*T Conference, Montreal, May 14, 2008,

Binding Energies, Crystal Structure and Stability of Doped Zirconia. 

   ELESTRES User’s Group Meeting, SP, AECL, November 8, 2006,

FOXSIMF, Recent Activities at AECL.

  SOURCE IST, User’s Group Meeting, COG, Toronto, June 15, 2006,

Highlights on EXACT modification for ELESTRES – SOURCE data transfer.

   F*A*C*T Conference, Montreal, May 17, 2006,

The Crystal Structure of Pure and Doped Uranium

   9th International Conference on CANDU Fuel; CANDU Fuel, Belleville, September 18-21, 2005,

Atomistic simulations of Zr-O-H systems.

   ELESTRES IST User’s Group Meeting, AECL SP, December 14, 2004,

Martin’s model for thermal expansion?

   CNS Sixth International Conference on Simulation Methods in Nuclear Engineering, Montreal, Quebec, October 12-15, 2004,

The Crystal Structure of Pure and Doped Urania.

   3rd Workshop on Fuel Oxidation Behaviour, RMC, Kingston, August 26-27, 2004,

  • Fuel Oxidation – back to basics
  • Fuel Oxidation Models for Safety Analysis

   ELESTRES IST User’s Group Meeting, AECL SP, June 23, 2004,

SOURCE IST 2.0 α–9f VERCORS 04 Validation Exercise: ELESTRES-IST 1.0 versus Canflex 1.1

   SOURCE IST User’s Group Meeting, AECL SP, June 21, 2004,

Fuel Oxidation Model.

   UOIT, February 2, 2004, Small Scale Modeling of CANDU Fuel.

   8th International Conference on CANDU Fuel; CANDU Fuel, Honey Harbour, September 21-24, 2003,

Oxygen and Hydrogen Diffusion in Zirconia.

   ELESTRES User’s Group Meeting, AECL SP, June 3, 2003,

Data Transfer from ELESTRES to SOURCE

   AECL, Chalk River laboratories, December 9, 2002,

Computer Simulations for CANDU Fuel Rods During Accidents.

   Queen's University, November 15, 2002,

Computer Simulations for CANDU Fuel Rods During Severe Accidents.

   Seoul National University, School of Materials and Engineering, July 2, 2002,

Computer Simulations of Materials Failure for CANDU Fuel Rods During Severe Accidents.

   CAMECO, October 5, 2001,

Modeling CANDU Fuel Rods During Accidents.

   Seventh International Conference on CANDU Fuel; CANDU Fuel for the Future, Kingston, September 23-27, 2001:

  • Fuel Oxidation and Thermal Conductivity Model for Operating Defective Fuel Rods
  • Multi-Component Gas Transport in CANDU Fuel Rods During Severe Accidents

   University of Western Ontario, Applied Mathematics, Western Science Centre, July 6, 2001,

Modeling CANDU Fuel Rods During Accidents.   

   RMC, SOURCE-2 Gap Transport Meeting, Kingston, August 17, 2000:

  • Monte Carlo Simulation of Solidification (Molten Pool) Processes
  • Three-component Gas Mixture Transport in Defective Candu Fuel Rods
  • Fuel Oxidation Model for Operating Defective Rods

   Queen's University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, March 18, 1999,

Modeling Properties of Advanced Engineering Materials.

   Queen's University, Physics Department, 4th June 1998,

Modeling Properties of New Engineering Materials.

   IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, September 19, 1997,

Modeling Magnetic Properties of Advanced Materials.

   APS March Meeting, St. Louis, 18-22 March, 1996,

Modeling of the Magnetic and Elastic Properties  of Nanocrystals.

   CIM 33rd Annual Conference of Metallurgists, August 23, 1994, Toronto,

The Molecular Dynamics and the Local Spin Density Approximation Modeling of

the Structural Disorder and the Magnetic Properties of Grain Boundaries.

   University of Northern British Columbia, March 21, 1994,

Molecular-Dynamics and Local-Spin Density Calculations of Structural Disorder

and Electronic Structure in Nanocrystals.

   OCMR Annual Networking Meeting, Nottawasaga Inn, Alliston, Ontario, October 1, 1993,

Modeling of Structural Disorder in Crystalline and Amorphous Nickel.

   Laurentian University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sudbury, 13th

April, 1992,

Electronic Structure Studies of Solid C60  -Rb and other High Temperature

Superconductors.

   VI International School on Magnetism, Bialowieza, June 21-30, 1992,

Magnetism Within the Limitations of the LDA Band Structure Calculations.

   NSERC-CAP Summer Institute in Theoretical Physics.

Workshop on Density Functional Theory: Methods and Applications, Kingston,

July 5-11, 1992,

Limitations of the LDA in the Context of Band-Structure Calculations.

   University of Calgary, Department of Physics and Astronomy, September 21,

1992,

Are Buckyballs and High Tc  Superconductors Related?

   University of Regina, Department of Physics and Astronomy, September 28,

1992,

Are Buckyballs and High Tc  Superconductors Related?

   Max Planck Institute für Festkörperforschung, Stuttgart, Federal Republic of

Germany,May 8, 1991,

The C60   Compounds.

   Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, 16th October, 1991,

Electronic Structure Studies of Solid C60  -Rb and other High Temperature

Superconductors.

   Queen's University, Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering,

Kingston, 28th November, 1991,

What Can We Learn from Electronic Structure Studies about Doped C60   and other High Temperature Superconductors.

   Queen's University, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, January 11,

1990,

The Electronic Structure of High Tc  Superconductors.

   University of Guelph, Physics Department, April 25, 1990,

The Electronic Structure Calculations for High Tc Superconductors.

   Xerox Research Centre, May 24, 1990,

The Electronic Structure of High Tc Superconductors.

   University of Waterloo, Physics Department, September 13, 1990,

What can we learn about high Tc superconductors from band structure

calculations?

   University of Ottawa, Physics Department, September 17, 1990,

What Can we Learn About High Tc  Superconductors from Band Structure

Calculations?

   University of Alberta, Physics Department, November 2, 1990,

What can we learn about high Tc  superconductors from band structure

calculations?

   Queen's University, Physics Department, January 24, 1989,

Recent Progress and Band Structure Calculations for the New High Tc 

Superconductors.

   Simon Fraser University, Physics Department, January 27, 1989,

LMTO-ASA Electronic Structure Calculations for High Tc  Superconductors.

   Fourth International Conference on Supercomputing and Third World

Supercomputer Exhibition, Santa Clara April 30-May 5, 1989,

Supercomputing and High - Temperature Superconductivity.

   International Conference on the Physics of Highly Correlated Electron Systems,

Santa Fe (September 11-15, 1989),

Antiferromagnetism and Semiconductivity.

   National Research Council, Division of Physics, April 12, 1988,

Electronic Structure and Magnetic Instabilities in High Tc Superconductors.

   Seminar on Applications of High Temperature Superconductivity, November 14, 1988, McGill University,

Electronic Structure of High Tc  Superconductors.

   Queen's University, Physics Department, November 4, 1987,

Electronic Properties and Magnetism in High Tc  Superconductors.