2019 Boyer Colloquium

Research Reactors: At the Intersection of Science, Technology and Society

The Boyer Colloquium’s guest speaker, Julia Phillips, will speak about the need for investment in new high-flux neutron research reactors. High flux neutron research reactors require highly enriched uranium for fuel. These research reactors are being retired because of concerns about nuclear proliferation. The U.S. is not investing in low uranium/high neutron flux fuels, ceding the lead in neutron research to other nations. Phillips is a Freeport native who now lives in New Mexico and is a retired former Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Sandia National Laboratories, a U.S. Department of Energy multi-program science and engineering laboratory.