OAK RIDGE, Tenn., May 11, 2010 -- Ted Besmann, leader of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Surface Processing & Mechanics group, has been elected fellow of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and has been selected to receive the society's 2010 Mishima Award.
The ANS honored Besmann with the Mishima Award, named for the late University of Tokyo professor Yoshitsugu Mishima, based on his "outstanding contributions in research and development work in nuclear fuel and materials."
During his 35-year career, Besmann has developed widely used thermochemical models that accurately predict the behavior of urania and mixed oxide fuels, which are now used in the majority of today's nuclear power plant reactors.
Three of his substantial number of papers have more than 100 citations each and have been referenced in fuel technology development across the globe, including the United States, France, England, Japan and India.
Besmann's achievements in fuel modeling led to his appointment as chair of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency Expert Group on Multi-scale Modeling of Fuels. In the related field of thermochemical modeling of nuclear waste glasses-- a method of nuclear waste storage--he was elected a member of the International Commission on Glass Technical Committee on Nuclear and Hazardous Waste Vitrification.
In addition to thermochemical fuel models, Besmann won an R&D 100 award for his leadership in the field of continuous fiber ceramic composites. CFCCs are more resistant to heat and corrosion than ceramics and could potentially be used as a first-wall for magnetic confinement fusion devices and are being considered for use with conventional nuclear fuel.
Besmann lives in Solway, Tenn. with his wife Wendy. He will receive $1,000 associated with the Mishima award and be installed as Fellow of the Society in June at the ANS Annual Meeting in San Diego.
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy's Office of Science.