Welcome to the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies

Welcome to the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies (ISNPS). ISNPS was founded in 1984 as a research and development organization within UNM's School of Engineering with a focus on space power and propulsion technologies and related fields. ISNPS offers educational and professional training and conducts research in many fields of space nuclear power and space systems technology, nuclear reactor design, reactor neutronics and thermal-hydraulics, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), experimental and numerical heat transfer technology, heat pipes, boiling, thermoelectric converters, dynamic energy conversion, integrated system modeling, and nuclear cybersecurity simulation.

We currently have research assistanceship opportunities, check here for details

Recent News

• Masters Graduation - Ahmad Shaheen
• El-Genk invited speaker at the Open Plenary Panel at ANS Winter Meeting, 17-21, 2024.
• Distinguished and Regent's Professor and ISNPS Director Mohamed El-Genk invited to be Pane...
• Graduate Research Assistantships are Available Summer and Fall 2024 in Space Nuclear Power...
• Alumni of UNM-ISNPS and Nuclear Engineering Department Selected Scientist of the year




ISNPS Research Areas




Space Nuclear Power Publications Boiling Heat Transfer Publications Radioisotope Power Publications





SLIMM & VSLLIM Publications Dynamic Conversion Publications Nuclear Cybersecurity Publications





CFD Publications Thermoelectric Conversion Publications Heat Pipe Publications




To find our publications on more research areas click here




Recent News

• Masters Graduation - Ahmad Shaheen
• El-Genk invited speaker at the Open Plenary Panel at ANS Winter Meeting, 17-21, 2024.
• Distinguished and Regent's Professor and ISNPS Director Mohamed El-Genk invited to be Pane...
• Graduate Research Assistantships are Available Summer and Fall 2024 in Space Nuclear Power...
• Alumni of UNM-ISNPS and Nuclear Engineering Department Selected Scientist of the year

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Founding Director



Mohamed El-Genk, Distinguished and Regents' Professor of Nuclear, Mechanical and Chemical and Biological Engineering and the Founding Director of the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies has been named the recipient of the 2010 Donald Q. Kern Memorial Award by the Transport and Energy Process Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. This award given in honor of Donald Q. Kern, a pioneer in process heat transfer, is one of the most prestigious in the world in recognizing significant contributions to the fields of applied heat transfer or energy conversion or in the translation of research results into useful technological applications. Dr. El-Genk joined the recognized leaders in the field of heat transfer who received this award since 1974.

He has also been named named the recipient of the American Nuclear Society thermal-hydraulics Technical Achievement Award for 2015. The award is in recognition of his exceptional contributions to the understanding of terrestrial and space reactor thermal hydraulics phenomena and for his impact on the thermal hydraulics community as a researcher, educator, and leader.

Dr. El-Genk was named the recipient of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 2017 Heat Transfer Memorial Award for his outstanding contributions to boiling enhancement; immersion cooling of electronics; forced, natural, and combined convection in rod bundles; heat pipes and thermosyphons; impinging and swirling jets heat transfer; thermal-hydraulics of nuclear reactors; and thermal management of space nuclear power systems.

He has also been named the recipient of the ANS 2021 Reactor Technology Award in recognition of extraordinary contributions towards advancing space and micro reactor technologies

Dr. El-Genk is a fellow of the American Nuclear Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, and an associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is a member of the Assembly of the International Heat Transfer Conference (IHTC), the Organizing, Steering and U.S. Scientific committees of the 2010 14th IHTC, and the Scientific Committee of the International Center for Heat and Mass Transfer.

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Masters Graduation - Ahmad Shaheen



ISNPS student Ahmad Shaheen graduated with a M.S. degree in Nuclear Engineering at the University of New Mexico. His advisor was Dr. Mohamed S. El-Genk, Distinguished and Regents' Professor of Nuclear, Mechanical, and Chemical and Biological Engineering and Founding Director of the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies (ISNPS). Ahmad's thesis, titled Training Machine Learning Algorithms for the Transient Startup of a Long-Life Modular Microreactor, encompassed his research using Machine Learning (ML) algorithms within the Supervised Learning (SL) and Reinforcement Learning (RL) paradigms to train artificial neural networks to manage the movement of the control rods in the Very-Small, Long-LIfe, Modular (VSLLIM) microreactor developed at the University of New Mexico's Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies (UNM-ISNPS). The trained neural networks attempt to predict the positions of the control rods for a smooth startup to nominal, full-power steady state condition. The research successfully demonstrated training neural networks using the Soft Actor Critic (SAC) RL algorithm for control of the VSLLIM microreactor during startup. This work was performed as part of a DOE Nuclear Engineering University Program project led by Purdue University collaborating with UNM-ISNPS to investigate methods for autonomous and remote control of microreactors.

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El-Genk invited speaker at the Open Plenary Panel at ANS Winter Meeting, 17-21, 2024.

Distinguished and Regents' Professor of Nuclear Engineering and the founding Director of the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies ( https://isnps.unm.edu/ ) has been an invited speaker at the Open Plenary Panel of the American Nuclear Society's Winter Meeting and Expo ( https://www.ans.org/meetings/wc2024/ ) held in Orlando, FL, 17 - 21, 2024. He delivered a talk entitled, "Nuclear Power: Projected Growth and Futurities," reviewing the status and potential growth of nuclear power for space exploration and planetary missions and for providing clean baseload and environmentally friendly energy option for meeting the projected phenomenal growth in electricity demand to power Data Center in the US and abroad. In COP28 in Dubai, UAE ( https://unfccc.int/cop28 ) and COP29 ( https://unfccc.int/cop29 ) in Baku, Azerbaijan, 31 Countries and > 120 companies signed a joint statement to TRIPLE global nuclear energy capacity by 2050, in the drive to cut greenhouse gas emissions. El-Genk also highlighted the recent and future increased demand for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and Modular Micro Reactors (MMRs) for baseload power supply for Data Centers, and remote communities and mining activities in the US and abroad. He concluded with a vision and recommendations future actions to support the projected growth in nuclear power in the US and for the US nuclear Industry to claim a global market share of nuclear energy growth in developing countries and underdeveloped counties in Europe, Africa, and Asia. He also highlighted the designs features of developed designs of the walk-away safe and passively operating SLIMM-SMR and VSLLIM-MMR developed at the University of New Mexico's Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies for long operation lives with no onsite storage of either fresh or spent nuclear fuel. These reactor designs passively respectively generate 10-100 MW and 1.0- 10 MW of thermal power for electricity generation and for providing thermal power at up to 800 K to a host of industrial applications and remote mining operations in arid and remote locations. ( https://isnps.unm.edu/publications/topic/slimm_reactor_concept/ ) They will be fully constructed, assembled and sealed in factory delivered on a portable platform or installed below ground and mounted in seismic insulation bearings at selected sites.

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Distinguished and Regent's Professor and ISNPS Director Mohamed El-Genk invited to be Panelist at Opening Plenary of 2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo



The American Nuclear Society (ANS) has invited Distinguished and Regent's Professor and founding director Mohamed El-Genk to be a panelist in the Opening Plenary of the 2024 ANS Winter Meeting and Expo to be held in Orlando, Florida November 18, 2024. The theme of the conference is "Now comes the hard part...." with talks focusing on the challenges nuclear faces with the development and deployment of the next generation of nuclear plants for clean energy generation on Earth and for space exploration

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Graduate Research Assistantships are Available Summer and Fall 2024 in Space Nuclear Power, Reactor Thermal-Hydraulics, High Performance Computing and Computational Fluid Dynamics, and ML and AI Methods and Applications to Nuclear Reactor's Autonomous Operation

The Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies (ISNPS) at the University of New Mexico (UNM) is seeking applicants for multiple open Research Assistantship positions for starting the Summer and Fall 2024 Fall semester for full-time graduate students in Nuclear Engineering or closely related fields with relevant experience in the one of more of the listed areas to participate in cutting-edge engineering research. We are seeking students with diverse skillsets for exciting research projects in the areas of: Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and thermal-hydraulic analysis methods of energy systems; Small modular and microreactors design and modeling; Control theory and Machine Learning and AI methods and their applications to autonomous control and operation of microreactors, data mining, and training digital control systems; Computer programing and transient modeling using MATLAB Simulink; Operation, modeling, and analysis of heat pipes and thermal analysis for space nuclear power applications.

Applicants are being sought with prior research experience, and an earned MS degree in nuclear, chemical, mechanical engineering, or closely related fields. Those from minorities and traditionally underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply. These positions have the potential of multi-year financial support and the opportunity to participate in cutting edge research essential to the future of advanced, small modular and micro-reactors and for space exploration.

Additional information on these opportunities can be found at https://isnps.unm.edu/opportunities/.

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Alumni of UNM-ISNPS and Nuclear Engineering Department Selected Scientist of the year



Sal Rodriguez, alumni of ISNPS and the Nuclear Engineering Department of UNM has been selected as the 2023 Scientist of the Year by the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference. He is the first Sandia employee so named. ISNPS congratulates Sal on this great and well deserved honor. Please see the Sandia National Laboratories press release for more on this exciting announcement Here

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Research Team



The ISNPS group picture taken in June of 2022 outside of Hodgin Hall. From left to right, Front: Quoc Duong, Ragai Altimimi, Dr. Timothy Schriener, Christian Arguello, Prof. Mohamed El-Genk, Christopher Wolfe. To view each person individually, you may view the faculty and student indices.