About

Kenneth L. Peddicord is a Senior Professor and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois, obtained in 1972 and 1967 respectively, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, earned in 1965. His research interests encompass the behavior of nuclear fuels, reactor systems and design, fissile materials disposition, MOX fuels, Generation IV nuclear power systems, nuclear-generated hydrogen, the hydrogen economy, and nuclear workforce development. Peddicord's extensive background and expertise contribute significantly to the advancement of nuclear engineering, focusing on innovative reactor technologies and sustainable nuclear energy solutions.

Research topics

• Management
• Nanotechnology
• Composite material
• Business
• Electrical engineering
• Materials science
• Metallurgy
• Economics
• Engineering

Selected publications

• MOVING THE U.S. NUCLEAR WASTE PROGRAM FORWARD: SIX OVERARCHING RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE NUCLEAR WASTE TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2021-01-01

  article

  The U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board was established by Congress in 1987 to evaluate the technical and scientific validity of activities undertaken by the Secretary of Energy related to management of spent nuclear fuel and high level radioactive waste including repository site characterization and activities relating to packaging and transportation of these materials. Board members are nominated by the National Academies and appointed by the President. Most of the current Board members were appointed in 2012 and, thus, have nearly a decade of experience reviewing U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) activities and how they contribute to meeting the grand scientific and technological challenge of managing and permanently disposing of nuclear waste in the United States. The Board members also have had opportunities to observe and learn from waste management programs in other countries facing a similar challenge. Through this experience, Board members have seen the complex interplay between technical issues and societal and institutional factors that affect progress towards implementing a successful geologic repository program. Drawing on this collective experience, the Board prepared a report, issued in April 2021, designed to offer a broad set of high-level recommendations to DOE that, if adopted as core principles, will support the creation of a robust, safe, and effective nuclear waste management capability and lay the groundwork for a successful geologic repository. The six overarching recommendations and associated action items in the report relate to (i) ensuring an integrated organizational approach, (ii) anticipating required infrastructure and personnel needs, (iii) expanding the research paradigm to embrace hypothesis testing, (iv) applying an iterative, adaptive waste management program approach, (v) expanding engagement with the international community, and (vi) embracing openness, transparency, and engagement to build public trust and confidence.

  PublisherDOI

• Radiation response of FeCrAl-coated Zircaloy-4

  Journal of Nuclear Materials · 2020 · 11 citations

  • Materials science
  • Composite material
  • Metallurgy
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Power Engineering Technology: A New Program Targeted At The Nuclear Power Industry

  2020 · 4 citations

  • Engineering
  • Business
  • Electrical engineering

  Recent studies indicate that over the next five years, there will be significant increases in the demand for utility workers. These studies also show that the present supply of these workers will not keep pace with this anticipated growth. This is especially true in the nuclear power industry, where the aging workforce and expected increase in the number of operational nuclear power plants are early indicators of a severe shortage of skilled utility workers. In Texas alone, NRG (South Texas Power Nuclear Operating Company), Luminant, and Exelon have all announced their intentions to license and build six new nuclear power plants. These plants will require approximately two thousand qualified personnel to operate and maintain them. Traditionally, the nuclear power industry has relied on a strong nuclear navy and nuclear construction work force to supply their human resource needs. However, these resources have dwindled leaving the nuclear power industry looking for new sources to fill their staffing requirements.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Effect of Internal Free Surfaces on Void Swelling of Irradiated Pure Iron Containing Subsurface Trenches

  Crystals · 2019-05-15 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access

  We studied the effects of internal free surfaces on the evolution of ion-induced void swelling in pure iron. The study was initially driven by the motivation to introduce a planar free-surface defect sink at depths that would remove the injected interstitial effect from ion irradiation, possibly enhancing swelling. Using the focused ion beam technique, deep trenches were created on a cross section of pure iron at various depths, so as to create bridges of thickness ranging from 0.88 μm to 1.70 μm. Samples were then irradiated with 3.5 MeV Fe2+ ions at 475 °C to a fluence corresponding to a peak displacement per atom dose of 150 dpa. The projected range of 3.5 MeV Fe2+ ions is about 1.2 μm so the chosen bridge thicknesses involved fractions of the ion range, thicknesses comparable to the mean ion range (peak of injected interstitial distribution), and thicknesses beyond the full range. It was found that introduction of such surfaces did not enhance swelling but actually decreased it, primarily because there were now two denuded zones with a combined stronger influence than that of the injected interstitial. The study suggests that such strong surface effects must be considered for ion irradiation studies of thin films or bridge-like structures.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Ion cutting of amorphous metals by using helium ion implantation

  Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms · 2019-04-29 · 4 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• An Integrated Approach to Human Resource Development for the Nuclear Industry

  2015-Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit & Exhibition · 2015-12-15

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• ICONE19-44136 REBIRTH OF AGN-201M : PRACTICAL WAYS OF USING THE PROVEN TRAINING REACTOR

  The Proceedings of the International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE) · 2011-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The AGN reactor type was supposed to be a workhorse of nuclear education in the sixties, with dozens of units being produced and sold around the USA and overseas. However, nowadays only 4 units are fully operational, the rest has been mothballed or decommissioned. In 2010 Texas A&M University made the AGN-201M again part of its education program, after years of reactor inactivity. This very recent practical experience from Texas A&M shows that AGN-201M can be successfully used for undergraduate and graduate nuclear education and new educational methods can be implemented on the reactor. The paper demonstrates new experimental classes developed for the reactor and may serve as an idea for other mothballed AGNs or training reactors worldwide.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Design of an Alternative Coolant Inlet Flow Configuaration for the Modular Helium Reactor

  University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) · 2006-06-01 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The coolant outlet temperature for the Modular Helium Reactor (MHR) was increased to improve the overall efficiency of nuclear hydrogen production using either thermochemical or high temperature electrolysis (HTE) processes. The inlet temperature was also increased to keep about the same _T across the reactor core. Thermal hydraulic analyses of the current MHR design were performed with these updated temperatures to determine the impact of these highter temperatures on pressure drops, coolant flow rates and temperature profiles within the vessel and core regions. Due to these increased operating temperatures, the overall efficiency of hydrogen production processes increases but the steady state reactor vessel temperature is found to be well above the ASME code limits for current vessel materials. Using the RELAP5-3D/ATHENA computer code, an alternative configuration for the MHR coolant inlet flow path was evaluated in an attempt to reduce the reactor vessel temperatures. The coolant inlet flow was shifted from channel boxes located in the annular region between the reactor core barrel and the inner wall of the reactor vessel to a flow path through the outer permanent reflector. Considering the available thickness of graphite in the permanent outer reflector, the total flow area, the number of coolant holes and the coolant-hole diameter were varied to optimize the pressure drop, the coolant inlet velocity and the percentage of graphite removed from the core. The resulting thermal hydraulic analyses of the optimized design showed that peak vessel and fuel temperatures were within acceptable limits for both steady-state and transient operating conditions.

  Publisher

• Final Technical Report for the Period September 2002 through September 2005; H2-MHR Pre-Conceptual Design Report: SI-Based Plant; H2-MHR Pre-Conceptual Design Report: HTE-Based Plant

  2006-04-19 · 1 citations

  reportOpen access

  For electricity and hydrogen production, an advanced reactor technology receiving considerable international interest is a modular, passively-safe version of the high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor, known in the U.S. as the Modular Helium Reactor (MHR), which operates at a power level of 600 MW(t). For electricity production, the MHR operates with an outlet helium temperature of 850 C to drive a direct, Brayton-cycle power-conversion system with a thermal-to-electrical conversion efficiency of 48 percent. This concept is referred to as the Gas Turbine MHR (GT-MHR). For hydrogen production, both electricity and process heat from the MHR are used to produce hydrogen. This concept is referred to as the H2-MHR. This report provides pre-conceptual design descriptions of full-scale, nth-of-a-kind H2 MHR plants based on thermochemical water splitting using the Sulfur-Iodine process and High-Temperature Electrolysis.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• H2-MHR Pre-Conceptual Design Report: SI-Based Plant: General Atomics Report GA-A25401, April 2006. H2-MHR Pre-Conceptual Design Report: HTE-Based Plant, General Atomics Report GA-A25402, April 2006

  2006-01-01

  article
  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• J.K. Thomas

  Baker Engineering and Risk Consultants (United States)

  16 shared

• A.G. Parlos

  Texas A&M University

  8 shared

• M.J. Ades

  7 shared

• Timothy C. Kennedy

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  6 shared

• S.L. Hayes

  Idaho National Laboratory

  6 shared

• L.J. Jardine

  Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  5 shared

• J.W. Poston

  Texas A&M University

  5 shared

• Robert Montgomery

  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  5 shared

Labs

• Nuclear Materials and Fuel CyclesPI