Anna Erickson

Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Georgia Tech College of Engineering

  • Atlanta GA

Dr. Erickson's research focuses on advanced nuclear reactor design and nuclear security and nonproliferation.

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Georgia Tech College of Engineering

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Biography

Anna Erickson is a leader of Advanced Laboratory for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Safety and an Assistant Professor of Nuclear & Radiological Engineering in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. She received her MS and PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was a NNSA’s Stewardship Science Graduate Fellow. Prior to her position at Georgia Tech, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Advanced Detectors Group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Erickson's research focuses on advanced nuclear reactor design and nuclear security and nonproliferation, connected by the current need for proliferation-resistant nuclear power. Her group is involved in large-array imaging applications for homeland security, antineutrino detection and nuclearized robotics for safety and security applications.

Areas of Expertise

Non-Prolilferation
Radiation Detection
Nuclear Security

Selected Accomplishments

Lockheed Dean's Excellence in Teaching Award

2016

American Nuclear Society Graduate Scholarship Award

2006 and 2009

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ph.D.

Nuclear Science and Engineering

2011

Activities and Societies: President, Alpha Nu Sigma Honor Society, MIT chapter, March 2008 - current

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

M.S.

Nuclear Science and Engineering

2008

Activities and Societies: President, American Nuclear Society, MIT chapter, May 2008 - May 2009

Oregon State University

B.S.

Nuclear Engineering

2006

Activities and Societies: American Nuclear Society, OSU student chapter, VP 2005-2006 Alpha Nu Sigma Honor Society

Selected Media Appearances

Antineutrino Detection Could Help Remotely Monitor Nuclear Reactors

Research Horizons  online

2019-08-06

Technology to measure the flow of subatomic particles known as antineutrinos from nuclear reactors could allow continuous remote monitoring designed to detect fueling changes that might indicate the diversion of nuclear materials. The monitoring could be done from outside the reactor vessel, and the technology may be sensitive enough to detect substitution of a single fuel assembly.

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Grand Canyon guests exposed to radiation, safety manager says

Fox17  online

2019-03-13

Uranium ore stored at the Grand Canyon National Park museum may have exposed visitors and workers to elevated levels of radiation, according to the park’s safety, health and wellness manager.

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For nearly 2 decades, Grand Canyon tourists were exposed to radiation, safety manager says

WPIX 11 New York  online

2019-02-21

Uranium ore stored at the Grand Canyon National Park museum may have exposed visitors and workers to elevated levels of radiation, according to the park’s safety, health and wellness manager.

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Selected Articles

Performance and safety evaluation of a mixed-spectrum reactor design

Annals of Nuclear Energy

A. Abou-Jaoude, N.E. Stauff, A. Erickson

2019

Mixed-spectrum reactors (MXR) have been investigated for a wide variety of applications. Typical MXR core designs are based on fast configurations with moderating material inserted within localized regions of the core. Limited analysis has been conducted on assessing important performance and safety aspects. Three main safety-related metrics are devised in this article to validate the feasibility of MXR designs. A long-lived MXR variant was taken as a case study for this analysis. Reactivity feedback mechanisms were evaluated, along with power peaking effects and fast flux damage. Neutron transport simulations found that distortions are manageable in all three areas, with notable improvements in fluence limits and Doppler broadening coefficients. Power peaking effects can be significantly dampened by slight addition of gadolinium in the fuel and by carefully selecting the reflector material.

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The PROSPECT reactor antineutrino experiment

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment

J Ashenfelter, AB Balantekin, C Baldenegro, HR Band, CD Bass, DE Bergeron, D Berish, LJ Bignell, NS Bowden, J Boyle, J Bricco, JP Brodsky, CD Bryan, A Bykadorova Telles, JJ Cherwinka, T Classen, K Commeford, AJ Conant, AA Cox, D Davee, D Dean, G Deichert, MV Diwan, MJ Dolinski, A Erickson, M Febbraro, BT Foust, JK Gaison, A Galindo-Uribarri, CE Gilbert, KE Gilje, A Glenn, BW Goddard, BT Hackett, K Han, S Hans, AB Hansell, KM Heeger, B Heffron, J Insler, DE Jaffe, X Ji, DC Jones, K Koehler, O Kyzylova, CE Lane, TJ Langford, J LaRosa, BR Littlejohn, F Lopez, X Lu, DA Martinez Caicedo, JT Matta, RD McKeown, MP Mendenhall, HJ Miller, JM Minock, PE Mueller, HP Mumm, J Napolitano, R Neilson, JA Nikkel, D Norcini, S Nour, DA Pushin, X Qian, E Romero-Romero, R Rosero, D Sarenac, BS Seilhan, R Sharma, PT Surukuchi, C Trinh, MA Tyra, RL Varner, B Viren, JM Wagner, W Wang, B White, C White, J Wilhelmi, T Wise, H Yao, M Yeh, Y-R Yen, A Zhang, C Zhang, X Zhang, M Zhao

2019

The Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment, PROSPECT, is designed to make both a precise measurement of the antineutrino spectrum from a highly-enriched uranium reactor and to probe eV-scale sterile neutrinos by searching for neutrino oscillations over meter-long baselines. PROSPECT utilizes a segmentedLi-doped liquid scintillator detector for both efficient detection of reactor antineutrinos through the inverse beta decay reaction and excellent background discrimination. PROSPECT is a movable 4-ton antineutrino detector covering distances of 7 m to 13 m from the High Flux Isotope Reactor core. It will probe the best-fit point of the disappearance experiments at 4 in 1 year and the favored regions of the sterile neutrino parameter space at more than in 3 years. PROSPECT will test the origin of spectral deviations observed in recent experiments, search for sterile neutrinos, and address the hypothesis of sterile neutrinos as an explanation of the reactor anomaly. This paper describes the design, construction, and commissioning of PROSPECT and reports first data characterizing the performance of the PROSPECT antineutrino detector.

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A low mass optical grid for the PROSPECT reactor antineutrino detector

Journal of Instrumentation

J Ashenfelter, AB Balantekin, HR Band, CD Bass, DE Bergeron, D Berish, NS Bowden, JP Brodsky, CD Bryan, JJ Cherwinka, T Classen, AJ Conant, D Davee, D Dean, G Deichert, AE Diwan, MJ Dolinski, A Erickson, M Febbraro, BT Foust, JK Gaison, A Galindo-Uribarri, Y Gebre, CE Gilbert, KE Gilje, IF Gustafson, BT Hackett, S Hans, AB Hansell, KM Heeger, KH Hermanek, J Insler, DE Jaffe, DC Jones, O Kyzylova, CE Lane, TJ Langford, J LaRosa, BR Littlejohn, X Lu, DA Caicedo, JT Matta, RD McKeown, MP Mendenhall, JM Minock, PE Mueller, HP Mumm, J Napolitano, R Neilson, JA Nikkel, D Norcini, S Nour, DA Pushin, X Qian, E Romero-Romero, R Rosero, D Sarenac, PT Surukuchi, MA Tyra, RL Varner, B Viren, C White, J Wilhelmi, T Wise, M Yeh, Y-R Yen, A Zhang, C Zhang, X Zhang, PROSPECT Collaboration

2019

PROSPECT, the Precision Reactor Oscillation and SPECTrum experiment, is a short-baseline reactor antineutrino experiment designed to provide precision measurements of the 235U product bar nue spectrum, utilizing an optically segmented 4-ton liquid scintillator detector. PROSPECT's segmentation system, the optical grid, plays a central role in reconstructing the position and energy of bar nue interactions in the detector. This paper is the technical reference for this PROSPECT subsystem, describing its design, fabrication, quality assurance, transportation and assembly in detail. In addition, the dimensional, optical and mechanical characterizations of optical grid components and the assembled PROSPECT target are also presented. The technical information and characterizations detailed here will inform geometry-related inputs for PROSPECT physics analysis, and can guide a variety of future particle detection development efforts, such as those using optically reflecting materials or filament-based 3D printing.

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